Cyril Snipe

Cyril Snipe (1888-1944) was a British motor racing driver who won the 1912 Targa Florio in Sicily driving an Italian SCAT motor car.

Early life Cyril Arthur Snipe was born at Conisborough, Yorkshire, in the first quarter of 1888 to Arthur W Snipe, a schoolmaster, and Fanny (née Banner). By the time of the 1901 census the family were living in Tamworth, Staffordshire. Snipe was the nephew of a Manchester car dealer, John Bennett of Newton-Bennett, who backed his early racing career.

Motoring career Newton and Bennett was an associate company of SCAT (Società Ceirano Automobili Torino), an automobile manufacturer from Turin, Italy, that was founded in 1906 by Giovanni Ceirano. Snipe reportedly worked at the Turin factory as a test driver.

In 1910 he achieved a class victory in the Modena sprint driving an (Società Piemontese Automobili) S.P.A., manufactured in Turin by Matteo Ceirano.

Family life In 1911 Snipe married Blanche L Blainey in Salford, Greater Manchester but she died in 1918 in Portsmouth aged 28. Thus in 1922 he married Emily Hendrey (or Moreton) in Paddington.

His death was registered in Surrey in 1944 at the age of 55.