Fay Taylour

Fay Taylour (5 April 1904 – 2 August 1983), known as Flying Fay, was an Irish motorcyclist in the late 1920s and a champion speedway rider. She switched to racing cars in 1931. She was interned as a fascist during the Second World War. After the war, she managed to enter some races in the UK, Ireland, Sweden and Australia and took up midget car racing in the United States until she retired in the late 1950s.

Early life Helen Frances Taylour, known as Fay, was born in Birr, County Offaly, to Helen Allardice (née Webb) (1868/9–1925) and Herbert Fetherstonhaugh Taylour (1868/9–1952), a former colonel in the British army. Her family was well off by the standards of the time: her father was a district inspector in the RIC and they lived at Oxmanton Hall in the centre of Birr. One of her maternal aunts, Hilda Webb, was an active suffragette and a young Fay was taken to visit her when she was imprisoned in Holloway gaol.

Taylour was educated at Miss Fletcher's boarding school in Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin, and in 1919 went to Alexandra College, then in Earlsfort Terrace, where the Conrad Hotel now stands. She left school in 1922 and joined her family in Berkshire, where they had moved following the creation of the Irish Free State which had led to the end of the Royal Irish Constabulary, her father's employer. Her mother was terminally ill and Taylour looked after her and the home until her mother died in 1925.

In 1928 she spent £500 of her own money to travel to race in Australia and New Zealand. She was the first rider from Europe to compete in Australia and New Zealand, ending her first race in Australia equalling the track record and beating Western Australia champion Sig Schlam. In Melbourne she won against the local champion Reg West. She became popular with racing promoters as she could attract crowds of over 30,000 people to watch her race. Her popularity led to her appearing on cigarette cards, wearing scarlet racing leathers emblazoned with an Irish flag, and appearing on radio shows. Her motorcycle racing career came to an end when women were banned from competing in speedway, in the UK and then in Australia and New Zealand. Like Mosley, his wife, Diana Mitford and many other members of the party she was interned in Britain between 1 June 1940 and 5 October 1943 under Defence Regulation 18B, as a danger to the state. She was held without trial, first at Holloway gaol, where her aunt had once been imprisoned for suffragette activities, then in 1942 in a camp on the Isle of Man. She was released in 1943 on the condition that she live in neutral Eire, where she continued to be monitored by MI5.

Post war and later life Taylour became the only leading woman driver from pre-war days to resume racing after the war, when she returned to racing on circuits around the world, although her appearances became fewer. Usually, however, she was the only woman to take part. Her fascist affiliations were omitted from her post-war publicity.

In 1949, she moved to Hollywood, where she sold British cars. In the US, she discovered the popular sport of midget car racing on dirt tracks. During the 1950s, she was still racing with a 500 cc Cooper at major British circuits like Brands Hatch and Silverstone. By this time she was competing against a new generation of young drivers including Stirling Moss and Peter Collins.

After retirement in the late 1950s, she went to live at Blandford in Dorset. In March 1976 the British security services closed their file on her.

Taylour died from a stroke at the Dorset County Hospital, Dorchester, on 2 August 1983. She left her body to medical research.