Betty (born 30 November 1895) and Nancy Warner Debenham (born 1897) were English sisters, motorcyclists, and sports journalists. The sisters were heirs to the Debenhams department store fortune, and were both attached to the BSA works team. [1]
Betty (born 30 November 1895) and Nancy Warner Debenham (born 1897) were English sisters, motorcyclists, and sports journalists. The sisters were heirs to the Debenhams department store fortune, and were both attached to the BSA works team. [1]
By 1923, the two were already well-known colourful figures, [2] sometimes working as stunt riders to promote motorcycle sales at events such as the Olympia Motor Show. [3] In 1924 Betty Debenham completed a 500-mile trial on a 1.25 horsepower motorcycle from London to York and back, and then to Brighton and back. [4]
By 1926, they had both become formidable racers, and were competing in events across the country. They competed in their first trials in February, winning gold (Betty) and silver (Nancy) cups. [5] Each earned a silver cup in August's London-to-Barnstaple trial, riding 2.25 horsepower BSA motorcycles. [6] [7] A few weeks later, Nancy Debenham came out on top in a 200-mile reliability trial organized by the London Motor Cycling Club involving about 40 riders, mostly men. [8]
In 1929, the pair made a wager with racing driver Kaye Don that they could complete a 2,000 mile tour without spending any of their own money. [9] They set off south from London in February, but were forced to turn back due to snow. [9] Having already completed 600 miles in wintery conditions, and earned a few shillings helping stranded motorists, they headed north and encountered better weather. [9] They made more money by posing for photographs and writing about their journey, and at one point delivered a tyre for a local garage in exchange for petrol and oil. [9] [10]
In 1928, the Debenhams published a book entitled Motor-Cycling for Women. Based on their extensive experience, the slim book is part travel guide, part manual, and part shopping guide. [11] [12]
Motor-cycling is an ideal hobby for the tired business girl. She can seek health and pleasure during her precious week-ends by exploring the countryside and the seaside. She can gather her violets and primroses from the woods instead of buying them in jaded twopenny bunches, and her whole week-end's holiday need only cost her the price of her return fare to Brighton.
Betty Debenham was press secretary for the London Ladies' Motor Club. [13]
Betty Debenham went on to become a golf writer for the Daily Sketch [14] and, in 1938, was a founding member of the Association of Golf Writers. [15]
The Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited (BSA) was a major British industrial combine, a group of businesses manufacturing military and sporting firearms; bicycles; motorcycles; cars; buses and bodies; steel; iron castings; hand, power, and machine tools; coal cleaning and handling plants; sintered metals; and hard chrome process.
The New Hudson Cycle Co. was originally started in 1890 by George Patterson, and manufactured 'safety' bicycles in Birmingham. In 1903 they produced their first motorcycle, but times became tough for Patterson after one of his sons died in WW1 and the other lost a leg. The family sold the factory to HJ Bructon after WW1, and in 1920 the company was reformed as New Hudson Ltd.
Ariel Motorcycles was a British maker of bicycles and then motorcycles in Bournbrook, Birmingham. It was an innovator in British motorcycling, part of the Ariel marque. The company was sold to BSA in 1951 but the brand survived until 1967. Influential Ariel designers included Val Page and Edward Turner. The last motorcycle-type vehicle to carry the Ariel name was a short-lived three-wheel tilting moped in 1970.
The BSA Gold Star is a motorcycle made by BSA from 1938 to 1963. They were 350 cc and 500 cc single-cylinder four-stroke production motorcycles known for being among the fastest bikes of the 1950s. Being hand-built and with many optional performance modifications available, each motorcycle came from the factory with documented dynamometer test results, allowing the new owner to see the horsepower (bhp) produced.
Walter Leslie Handley born in Aston, Birmingham, known as Wal Handley, was a champion British inter-war motorcycle racer with four wins at the Isle of Man TT Races in his career. Later he also raced cars in the 1930s and died in a World War II aircraft accident while serving as pilot with the Air Transport Auxiliary.
Thomas Edward Phillis was an Australian professional Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. He won the 1961 125cc motorcycle road racing World Championship and was the first person to lap the Isle of Man TT mountain circuit at over 100 mph on a pushrod engined motorcycle. He was also the first person to win a World Championship motorcycle race on a Japanese machine.
Mildred Mary Petre was a British record-breaking racing motorist, speedboat racer and aviator in the 1920s and 1930s, and later, successful businesswoman. Commonly referred to as Mrs Victor Bruce, she was also known in contemporary references as Mary Petre Bruce, Mildred Bruce, Mildred Mary Bruce and Mary Victor Bruce.
Kaye Ernest Donsky, better known by his nom de courseKaye Don, was an Irish world record breaking car and speedboat racer. He became a motorcycle dealer on his retirement from road racing and set up Ambassador Motorcycles.
The Maudes Trophy is a motorcycle award established in 1923 by George Pettyt, owner of Maudes Motor Mart based in Great Portland Street, London who promoted an impartially-observed endurance test for motorcycles and provided a challenge award to the ACU who participated by acting as the body responsible for providing observers. Pettyt donated a silver trophy for the Auto-Cycle Union (ACU) to award annually, although over the years attempts proved to be infrequent.
The Thruxton 500 was a motorcycle endurance race for production based road machines, covering 500 miles and ridden by a team of two riders per machine. The first event was a 9-hour race which took place in 1955, organized by the Southampton and District Motorcycle Club (SDMCC) at the Thruxton Circuit near Andover in Hampshire. Two more 9-hour races followed in 1956 and 1957.
Bradbury Motor Cycles was a British motorcycle manufacturer based in Oldham, England and established in 1902. Originally involved in the manufacture of machine tools, sewing machines and cycles, their first motorcycles were bicycles with clip-on Minerva engines. The Bradbury factory went on to develop and produce a range of single-cylinder motorcycle, V-twins and horizontally opposed twins. The 1912 Bradbury motorcycles were one of the earliest with variable gearing. Although the factory survived the First World War it closed in 1924.
The Dunstall Norton was a Norton motorcycle made by Paul Dunstall, a specialist tuner of the 1960s and early 1970s twins originally using some parts from Norton's Domiracer project when the Birmingham factory was closed in 1963. In 1966 Dunstall Motorcycles became a motorcycle manufacturer in its own right so that Dunstalls could compete in production races, and set a number of world records before sales of the Dunstall Nortons declined in the 1970s consistent with the demise of the British motor cycle industry and a corresponding rise in Japanese imports.
Albert Perrigo (1903–1985) was a British engineer who was a successful motorcycle trials rider before becoming Competition Manager for BSA motorcycles where his ideas influenced the design of many of their best selling motorcycles.
Marjorie Cottle was an English works supported motorcycle trials rider. She was one of Britain's best-known motorcyclists in the 1920s and 1930s. She competed regularly in reliability trials and was considered to be one of the best riders in the country, male or female. Her greatest success was the International Six Days Trial of 1927, in which the British Ladies' Team won the International Silver Vase. That year the trial was held in the Lake District, and attracted a large number of competitors. She was described as the "most famous girl rider in the world".
Violette Cordery was a British racing driver and long distance record breaker.
BSA motorcycles were made by the Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited (BSA), which was a major British industrial combine, a group of businesses manufacturing military and sporting firearms; bicycles; motorcycles; cars; buses and bodies; steel; iron castings; hand, power, and machine tools; coal cleaning and handling plants; sintered metals; and hard chrome process.
The London Ladies' Motor Club was a motorcycle club for women based in London, England, founded in 1926, and affiliated with the Auto-Cycle Union.
Louie McLeannée Ball (1900–1932) was a British motorcycle racer and trials rider. She was part of the team who won the Silver Vase at the 1927 International Six Days Trial: the only team of women to ever do so.
Jessie Ennis born Jessie Rosina Hole was a British motorcycle trials rider, stunt rider and founder of the London Ladies' Motor Club.
Schoolchildren are always on the lookout for Miss Nancy Debenham, who gives the youngsters of her district a treat by carrying a whole load of them to school in the morning.