Betty Carstairs (born Marion Barbara Carstairs ) (1900 – 1993) was a British power boat racer.
Early life edit
Betty Carstairs (later nicknamed "Joe") was born in 1900 in Mayfair, London, England, the daughter of a troubled couple who separated soon after her birth.[1] Carstairs mother, an American heiress and an alcoholic, married three more husbands, the last of these being the French surgeon Serge Voronoff.[1] During World War I, Carstairs served in France with the Red Cross, driving ambulances, before going to Dublin with the Women's Legion Mechanical Transport Section and then serving with the Royal Army Service Corps in France after the war, re-burying the war-dead. Later, in 1920, she and a group of friends started the 'X Garage', a chauffeuring service that featured a women-only staff of drivers.[2]
Carstairs always stood out from the crowd, her behaviour often being outrageous. She usually dressed as a man, had tattooed arms, and loved machines, adventure and speed. Openly lesbian, she had numerous affairs with women: Dolly Wilde, Oscar's niece and a fellow ambulance driver from Dublin with whom she had lived in Paris. Also a string of actresses, most notably Tallulah Bankhead.[3] Carstairs married once,[2] to a French Count in 1918 so as to gain access to her trust fund, independent of her mother. After her mother's death the marriage was immediately annulled on the grounds of non consumation.[3] In 1925, she became wealthy through an inheritance from Standard Oil and purchased a motorboat.
In 1925 she was also given a Steiff doll by a girlfriend, Ruth Baldwin, and christened him Lord Tod Wadley. He was to remain her constant companion until her death. Although unlike Campbell's mascot 'Mr Whoppit', he didn't join her in the speedboats for fear of his loss.[2][4]
Between 1925 and 1930, Carstairs was a very successful powerboat racer. In 1926, she took the Duke of York's trophy. She was unsuccessful in her multiyear bid for the Harmsworth Trophy but earned a reputation for her speed.
Carstairs was a close friend of several male racing drivers and land speed record competitors, some of whom she used her considerable wealth to assist. Sir Malcolm Campbell described her as, "the greatest sportsman I know"[2]. He was right to be grateful, as £10,000 of her money had funded the building of his latest Bluebird. [5] Shew was equally generous to John Cobb, whose Railton Special was powered by the pair of engines from her powerboat Estelle V.[5]
Carstairs invested $40,000 purchasing the island of Whale Cay in the Bahamas, where she hosted such guests as Marlene Dietrich, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Her investment in the island was considerable and included its development and the construction of numerous buildings, including a lighthouse, school, church, cannery and of course The Great House for herself and her guests. She later expanded these properties by also buying the additional islands of Bird Cay, Cat Cay, Devil's Cay, half of Hoffman's Cay, a and a tract of land on Andros.[3]
After selling the island in 1975, Carstairs relocated to Miami, Florida where she lived until her death in 1993.
References edit
- Adrian Rance (1989). Fast Boats and Flying Boats. Southampton: Ensign Publications. ISBN 1-85455-026-8.
- ^ a b Irish Times (August 9, 1997) Weekend Books: A fast lady called Joe. (review of The Queen of Whale Cay: The Eccentric Story of 'Joe'Carstairs, Fastest Woman on Water by Kate Summerscale ASIN B000J3LK3O )
- ^ a b c d Terry Castle (5 March 1998). "If everybody had a wadley (review of 'The Queen of Whale Cay')". London Review of Books.
- ^ a b c Kate Summerscale (1997). The Queen of Whale Cay. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-670-88018-3.
- ^ "Photograph with Lord Tod Wadley".
- ^ a b Charles Jennings (2005). The Fast Set. Abacus. ISBN 0349115966.
External links edit