Jill Scott (racing driver)

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Scott driving a Bugatti in 1926

Jill Scott (21 May 1903 – 1974) was a British racing driver and aviator. She was described as "swashbuckling" and was a distinctive figure in motor racing, dressed in cherry-red from head-to-toe whenever she appeared at the race track.[1]

Early life[edit]

She was born Eileen May Fountain on 21 May 1903 at Birthwaite Hall in Darton, near Barnsley, Yorkshire, to Minnie Eveline (née Longley) and Joseph Fountain, a family made wealthy from their coal businesses.[1][2]

Racing career[edit]

Along with her first husband, William Berkeley "Bummer" Scott, she lived in a large house Grasmere, in Old Byfleet[3] near the Brooklands race track in Surrey, England, and the couple were early and enthusiastic collectors of automobiles.[2] They bought their first Sunbeam Indianapolis shortly after their marriage and quickly added several Bugattis to their collection.[2] Their cars all wore a distinctive black livery with emerald green wheels, and the couple collected frequent trophies racing their Bugattis at the nearby track.[2][4] Following the death of J. G. Parry-Thomas, they bought two of his cars, one of which, the 2-litre 1924-type Grand Prix Sunbeam,[5] Scott used to exceed 120 miles-per-hour on the Brooklands track, (a lap at 120.88 m.p.h.) in September 1928. She was the woman to do so and earned the right to display a coveted British Automobile Racing Club badge acknowledging the achievement.[2][1][6] In 1928 she became the first woman elected to the British Racing Drivers' Club.[1]

She earned her pilot's licence (No. 8554) on 16 April 1929 in an Avro Avian Cirrus II at Brooklands School of Flying.[7] Her 1938 portrait by Yevonde is on display at the National Portrait Gallery.[8]

Personal life[edit]

Jill and William Scott married on 21 November 1925[9] and had a daughter, Sheila, who attended boarding schools and Cheltenham Ladies' College, and then Cambridge University.[1]

In 1930 she divorced William and married another driver, Ernest Mortimer Thomas, who was also a former RAF pilot.[2][1] They had raced together previously.[10] Scott herself had learned to fly a few years earlier, and operated an Avro Avian.[2][1] She and her new husband continued to race at Brooklands for many years, her in an Alfa Romeo and him in a Frazer Nash.[2]

Scott died in 1974. Thomas died a few months later.[1]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Williams, Jean (2014). A Contemporary History of Women's Sport, Part One: Sporting Women, 1850-1960. Taylor & Francis. pp. 180–181. ISBN 9781317746669.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Bouzanquet, Jean François (2009). Fast Ladies: Female Racing Drivers 1888 to 1970. Veloce Publishing. p. 29. ISBN 9781845842253.
  3. ^ "Bonhams : The ex W.B. 'Bummer' Scott Team Car specification,1929 Bentley 4 1/2 litre Le Mans Sports Four Seater Chassis no. NX 3451 Engine no. XF 3507". www.bonhams.com. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  4. ^ Boddy, Bill (December 1976). "The racing cars of W.B. Scott". Motor Sport. 52 (12): 1459, 1462–1464.
  5. ^ "The racing cars of W.B. Scott". Motor Sport Magazine. 7 July 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  6. ^ "Fast Women". Goodwood. Spring 2018. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  7. ^ "Great Britain, Royal Aero Club Aviators' Certificates, 1910-1950". www.ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  8. ^ "Jill Scott - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  9. ^ "Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1938". www.ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  10. ^ H-g, Rachel (14 September 2015). "Speedqueens: Jill Scott-Thomas". Speedqueens. Retrieved 20 July 2023.

External links[edit]


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