Valerie Domleo

Valerie Domleo (11 April 1932 – 24 December 2020), also known as Valerie Domleo-Morley or Valerie Morley, was an English physicist, rally co-driver and farmer.

Formative years and family Domleo was born in Hendon, Middlesex, England on 11 April 1932 to Allan Domleo, who became the mayor of Derby in Derbyshire, and Ella Muriel White. She had an older brother, Allan P. Domleo. Educated at the Ockbrook School, she subsequently earned a university degree in physics in London.

Valerie wed fellow rally driver Donald Morley at the Dale Street Methodist Church in Warwick on July 11, 1966. They had two sons, Andrew and Roger, both born in Ipswich, and were married until Donald's death in 2006. By 1965, she was working as a physicist in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.

Driving career

A motorcycle enthusiast in her early twenties, Domleo took up rally driving during the 1950s. Her first event was as "a navigator in a club treasure hunt."

Injuries In 1964, she sustained burns during a car fire that broke out after her team's Mini Cooper, which was being driven by Mayman, collided with a farm tractor during the Monte Carlo rally. Flown home after her initial treatment, she recuperated and returned to driving.