THE DANCING DAUGHTERS OF THE 1935 24 HOURS OF LE MANS
“A team of six women sharing three 850cc MG Midgets… were quickly named the Dancing Daughters, possibly after a popular silent film of 1926 that launched the career of Joan Crawford. The first of the cars, all with Union Jacks on their flanks, was to be driven by Joan Richmond, an Australian horsewoman who had competed successfully at Brooklands and Mrs Gordon-Simpson, née Eva Brewer [unable to find portrait], who accessorised her racing outfit with a single string of pearls. In the second car were Doreen Evans, who had been racing at Brooklands since she was seventeen, and Barbara Skinner, who was to marry the racing driver, broadcaster and journalist John Bolster… The third was in the hands of Margaret Allan, a Bedales-educated Scot who would join the code-breaking team at Bletchley Park during the Second World War, and Colleen Eaton [unable to find portrait], another Australian whose husband, Hugh Eaton, had co-driven the third-place Talbot with Brian Lewis in 1930 [24 Hours of Le Mans]… … The three green MG Midgets, with their female crews in matching white overalls, won cheers for finishing twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth, the first two cars having completed 153 laps, one more than the third car, suffering no problems beyond a single broken light bulb... Although they had been given the same voting rights as men in the UK in 1928, women had to give up jobs in the civil service, education and nursing when they married, bank loans and mortgages for married women still required a husband's permission and equal pay was a faint mirage. But they could drive - and even race - a sports car on equal terms with men.” Blurb from 24 Hours by Richard Williams (2023)
