Friday, September 01, 2006

Enid Riddell

In 1937 Dorothy Stanley Turner and Joan Riddell finished 16th at Le Mans driving Captain Eyston's little MG Midget. A notable achievement which saw them finish second in the Rudge Whitworth Biennial Cup section of the race. At least that is what nearly every Motor Sport site on the web says. Dig a little deeper and a different name for Stanley-Turner's co-driver comes to light - Enid Riddell.

Now Enid Riddell is a much more interesting character than the fictitious Joan. A member of Captain Ramsay's pro-German Right Club, she was interned in Holloway prison during the war. Like MI5's Director of Transport, the Earl of Cottenham, another motor racing figure, Riddell was a close friend of the Nazi spy Anna Wolkoff. After the war Enid moved to Malaga where she owned a club with the racing name 'La Rascasse', she pops up in April Ashley's memoirs smuggling whiskey. In 1973 Anna Wolkoff, the daughter of a Tsarist admiral, was killed in a car crash in Spain, a car driven by her old friend Miss Riddell. Enid seemingly returned to London, where she died in 1980 aged 76.

1 comment:

John Brinkmann said...

It is my understanding that Anna Wolkoff was driving Enid's car because of Enid's poor vision, and that their car was rear-ended.