PAST IMPERFECT:On land or in the air, the Hon Mrs Victor Bruce was unsurpassed, writes Bob Montgomery
BORN MILDRED MARY Petre in 1895, from a very early age Mrs Victor Bruce showed a fascination with speed. By the time she was 15 she was regularly “borrowing” her elder brother’s motorcycle and taking it to its maximum speed on the open road.
In later life she claimed to have been the first woman to ride a motorcycle on the open road, and while this claim is questionable, she did earn herself a footnote in the history books by becoming the first woman in Britain to be fined for speeding at the then not-inconsiderable speed of 67m/h (108km/h), while still 15 years of age.
She soon moved on to cars, and took part in a whole range of organised speed events. But her big chance came in 1927 when she persuaded SF Edge, the managing director of the AC Car Company, to lend her a car in which to take part in the Monte Carlo Rally.
Starting from John O'Groats, her AC carried no less than three passengers – not unusual for that time. They were an AC engineer, Bobby Beare, who was motoring editor of the Daily Sketch, and her husband, Victor Bruce. Victor had been the winner of the 1926 Monte Carlo Rally, the first Englishman to achieve this feat.
Despite flu and a temperature of 103 degrees, Bruce managed the difficult snowy conditions well, doing all the driving as far as Felixstone. Too excited to sleep on the channel ferry crossing, she again drove as they headed south into France. By the time they reached the casino checkpoint in Monte Carlo she had been 70 hours and 20 minutes at the wheel.
On the following day, she successfully completed the Alpine test over the Col des Bras to take the coveted Coupe des Dames.
This achieved, the Bruces then drove down through Italy and sailed by ship to Tunis in north Africa, where they drove along the African coast to Tangier in Morocco, before returning through Spain to England. Not content with that, they drove the little AC for a thousand miles around the Montlhéry race track outside Paris.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the press reaction to her feats in Britain was huge, making her an instant celebrity and generating invaluable publicity for the AC Cars company.
There followed a trip in which they drove a car further inside the Arctic Circle than anyone had managed before and then in 1929 Bruce drove a 4.5l Bentley for 24 hours averaging over 142kph – a record which has never to this day, to the best of my knowledge, been beaten by a woman.
Thereafter, Bruce turned her attention to the skies, having decided to fly single-handed around the world. She learned to fly and with only 40 hours flying experience she set out on what turned out to be a successful five-month journey. Famous throughout Britain, she continued motor racing at Brooklands, flew in a flying circus, and was a regular winner in horseshow events.
Following the war, she proved herself a capable businesswoman in a variety of enterprises, becoming a millionaire in the process. Her autobiography, Nine Lives Plus, was published in 1977 to widespread critical acclaim. The Hon Mrs Victor Bruce died in 1990, aged 94.