First Ever British Driver?

[FIA]

Who was the first British driver to participate in a major motorsport event, during the 1894-1914 era?

[Valve Bounce]

John Smith!! :p :

[ShiftingGears]

Lewis Hamilton? :confused:

[FIA]

It looks like it was Henry Morris in this race in 1895.

http://www.racing-database.com/

[GJD]

This era is way earlier than any knowledge I have but may I offer S. F. Edge who participated, without success, in his Napier in the 1902 Gordon Bennett race?

The first motor race - a trial more like - was the reasonably well documented Paris-Rouen Trial of 22 July 1894. 102 cars participated, it attracted a lot of publicity at the time, but I cannot be sure if any British drivers ventured across La Manche to take on Johnny Foreign.

[GJD]

This era is way earlier than any knowledge I have but may I offer S. F. Edge who participated, without success, in his Napier in the 1902 Gordon Bennett race?

The first motor race - a trial more like - was the reasonably well documented Paris-Rouen Trial of 22 July 1894. 102 cars participated, it attracted a lot of publicity at the time, but I cannot be sure if any British drivers ventured across La Manche to take on Johnny Foreign.

[Vitesse]

As your link doesn't seem to point to anything in particular, FIA, I assume you're referring to the 1895 Chicago "Times-Herald" Contest, where a driver called Morris apparently took part in an electric vehicle? I very much doubt - in view of the location - that he was British. And the "Times-Herald" was more reliability run than race.

There had been one British entry in the 1894 Paris-Rouen-Paris (again really a reliability run) - Messrs Garrard and Blumfield of Birmingham filed an entry for an "electro-pneumatic" vehicle. It didn't appear.

AFAIK the first British driver to take part in an anywhere near "major" race was The Hon CS Rolls, who came fourth in the Paris-Boulogne on September 17th 1899, a very long way behind the winner, the experienced Léonce Girardot. Three days later, in the Bergamo-Treviglio-Crema-Bergamo, a driver called Robert Walker, racing under the nom de course "Fulton", won the tricycle class. He may well have been British, but I'm not certain on that.

Claude Loraine Barrow, a French-domiciled Englishman, took part in the Circuit du Sud Ouest on February 25th 1900 - he would eventually lose his life in the 1903 Paris-Madrid. The Circuit du Sud Ouest was a more significant event than the preceding two. Barrow also ran in the Bordeaux-Perigueux-Bordeaux on June 3rd-4th 1900, but the first British participant in a really important race was indeed, as GJD said, SF Edge (although Edge actually won the 1902 Gordon Bennett!).

Edge took part in the 1347km Paris-Toulouse-Paris race in July 1900, although he retired. This race was subsequently dubbed the fifth Grand Prix of the AC de France and was without doubt the major contest of 1900.

[D-Type]

How early did Charles Jarrott race?

I have him coming 2nd in the 1902 Circuit du Nord driving a Panhard, but I think he drove in major Continental, ie French, races in 1901 and possibly even 1900.

And wasn't S F Edge Australian rather than British? Admittedly the distinction was far less clear-cut in those days.

[Vitesse]

ABOUT CHARLES JARROTT 1877-1944

Charles Jarrott OBE, was Englands first successful racing motorist and his legendary exploits form the inspiration for this company. Born in 1877 he entered his first serious motor race, the Berlin-Paris of 1901, piloting a dark green Panhard into 10th place.
Source: http://www.jarrotts.com/about/index.htm

In period, Edge was described as British: although the Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901, the country did not gain Dominion status until 1907 and it was not until the Balfour Declaration of 1926 that the Dominions (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the Irish Free State) were considered "autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate to one another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations".

In other words, until the Balfour Declaration, Australians were (officially) British.

But CS Rolls was there first anyway ....

[Rollo]

Source: http://www.jarrotts.com/about/index.htm

In period, Edge was described as British: although the Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901, the country did not gain Dominion status until 1907

Bollocks.
Clauses 3 and 4 of The Commonwealth of Australia Act of 1900 established Australia as a "Commonwealth" as at Jan 1, 1901. Royal Assent was given on Jul 9, 1900.
Legally Australia was never a "Dominion" and was never refferred to as such, because it already had 6 Wesminster parliaments in operation, Australia was federated and never afforded dominion status because it already has the ability to pass it's own local laws. The Commonwealth of Australia was subordinate but never a dominion.

As an aside: Edwin Flack won an Olympic gold medal in 1896 for "Australia" some 5 years before the creation of the country, so that also blows your theory out of the water.

[D-Type]

Regardless of the political nuances, the reality is that it was after Gallipoli that Australia became a nation

[Vitesse]

Bollocks.
Clauses 3 and 4 of The Commonwealth of Australia Act of 1900 established Australia as a "Commonwealth" as at Jan 1, 1901. Royal Assent was given on Jul 9, 1900.
Legally Australia was never a "Dominion" and was never refferred to as such, because it already had 6 Wesminster parliaments in operation, Australia was federated and never afforded dominion status because it already has the ability to pass it's own local laws. The Commonwealth of Australia was subordinate but never a dominion.

As an aside: Edwin Flack won an Olympic gold medal in 1896 for "Australia" some 5 years before the creation of the country, so that also blows your theory out of the water.
I did specify "Dominion status", status being the crucial word - that status meant self-government. And - mea culpa - it was New Zealand and Newfoundland which were entitled to call themselves Dominions after 1907, not Australia, which achieved it in 1901 when the Commonwealth was declared.

Looking from a perspective of about 1930 the "old Dominions" were: The Dominion of Canada, The Commonwealth of Australia, The Dominion of New Zealand, The Dominion of Newfoundland, The Union of South Africa and the Irish Free State. So - three Dominions, one Commonwealth, one Union and one Free State: but all with equal status within the Empire.

[GJD]

Regardless of the political nuances, the reality is that it was after Gallipoli that Australia became a nation

Well... yes... but my (Australian) wife saluted the Union Flag and sang God Save HRH at school assemblies in Oz in the 50's and 60's.

And... whilst the Australia Acts of 1986 supposedly abolished appeals to the Privy Council, such were still heard into the 90's.

Degrees of separation, I suppose.

There again, you might say that the major point of separation came during the Adelaide Test in the 'Bodyline' series of 1932-33 when Bert Oldfield suffered a fractured skull and the Australian Board of Control subsequently sent the famous cable to the MCC in which they asserted that unless Bodyline was stopped it was likely to "upset the friendly relations existing between Australia and England."

[Vitesse]

You are of course referring to leg theory .... ;)

[GJD]

You are of course referring to leg theory .... ;)

Indeed! another degree of separation...

I suppose you've heard the story ( I dunno if it's true) about Jardine knocking on the door of the Australian changing room after a day's play and asking to speak to the captain. Woodfull was duly summoned and asked "What can I do for you, Dougie?"

"One of your chaps called me a barstard on the field of play, today," said Jardine, "and I want him carpeted."

Woodfull turned to the players behind him and called out, "Listen up, you barstards. Which of you barstards called this barstard a barstard?"



'Barstard' deliberately mispelt to thwart the swear filter 'cos it would have mucked up the story! Sorry, mods.