Annie Dorothea Caroline Earnshaw

Annie Dorothea Caroline Owen (née Earnshaw; 1857 — 28 January 1927) was the first female motorist in British Malaya and a founder of the Ladies' Lawn Tennis Club in Singapore.

Life Owen married George Mildmay Dare in 1877. In 1884, she co-founded the Ladies Lawn Tennis Club in Singapore. She was also a singer and a dancer and frequently took part in musical and theatrical performances.

In 1905, she imported a motorcar from England, becoming the fourth person in Singapore to own a car, after B. Frost, Charles Burton Buckley and William Kennedy. Kennedy gifted Owen his license plate, and she became the first woman in British Malaya to drive a car. She then taught Hassan Mohamed to drive. He then became the first chauffeur in Singapore. On 15 April 1907, she, her friend and her gardener embarked on a 686-mile road trip across the Malay Peninsula.