Gwenda Hawkes

Gwenda Mary Hawkes ( Glubb, previously Janson and Stewart; 1 June 1894 – 27 May 1990) was notable as an ambulance driver in World War I and later as a motor racing driver and speed record holder.

Early life Gwenda Mary Glubb was born in 1894 in Fulwood, Lancashire, to Major General Sir Frederic Manley Glubb and Frances Letitia Glubb, née Bagot.

War record Gwenda's father was an officer in the British Army who fought in the Boer Wars, and later became Chief Engineer of the British Second Army in World War I. Her brother, John Bagot Glubb, also a British soldier who fought in World War I, became known as Glubb Pasha as commander of the Arab Legion from 1939 until 1956 - Pasha being an Arab honorary title.

Motorcycle racing Gwenda on a Terrot with Gaston Durand (also on a Terrot) at a race in Strasbourg on 29 May 1926. Following her marriage to Colonel Sam Janson, a director of the Spyker car company, on 17 February 1920 in Brompton, Gwenda became interested in motor-cycle racing, competing in events at Brooklands.

In the winter of 1921, Gwenda established the 1000-mile record on a Ner-A-Car motor-cycle and in 1922 took the Double-12-hour record at Brooklands on a Trump-JAP.

Gwenda spent time away from home whilst participating in motor-cycling events, and the close relationship that she developed with Colonel Neil Stewart, who was involved with the company who provided her motor-cycles, resulted in Janson divorcing her in 1923.

Motor-car racing Douglas Hawkes was a director of the Derby engine and car company and was able to source a Miller Special from the United States. In the period between 1930 and 1933, in the Miller-derived car specially prepared by Derby and designated as a Derby-Miller, Gwenda broke the one-mile speed record several times at Montlhéry.

Gwenda's affair with Douglas Hawkes resulted in her divorce from Stewart, and her marriage in 1937 to Hawkes as her third husband.

Later life In 1940, after the start of the World War II (WWII), Gwenda and Douglas Hawkes moved to England, where Mrs Hawkes took up work in an armaments factory to help the war effort.

After World War II, they moved to the small Greek island of Poros.

Douglas Hawkes died in 1974, and Gwenda died in May 27, 1990, aged 95.