Gabrielle Borthwick

Gabrielle Borthwick (30 June 1866 10 October 1952) was a pioneering motorist and mechanic. She was one of the early wealthy women motorists to set up a garage and a school for teaching men and women to drive cars. She was chairman of the executive committee for the Women’s Automobile and Sports Association which was associated with the Royal Automobile Club.

Early life Hon. Gabrielle Margaret Ariana Borthwick was born on 30 June 1866. She was the eldest daughter of Alice Day and the 19th Lord Borthwick, Cunninghame Borthwick. As a young woman, she had been presented at court but never went on to marry. Borthwick spent time in Florence where it was rumored that she had had a lesbian affair.

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Borthwick was initiated as a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in July 1891.

Career By 1914, Borthwick was involved with establishing Women's unions, including the Society of Women Motor Drivers, an idea which had come from the women's suffrage movement. In 1915, she placed an advertisement for The Ladies’ Automobile Workshops in the Church League for Women’s Suffrage paper promising “Ladies trained by ladies. All branches of motoring taught" for her Mayfair garage. and residential club for chauffeurs.

She was elected to the first Council of the Women's Engineering Society in 1920, and contributed articles to their journal, The Woman Engineer.

Later life Gabrielle Borthwick died on 10 October 1952 in Broadbridge Heath, Sussex.

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