SEGRAVE--THE MAN

Hokitika Guardian, 2 November 1929, Page 2

SEGRAVE--THE MAN

SCHOOL DARE-DEVIL TO SPEED KING. Sir Henry O’Neal do Kane Segrave —lie is plain “'Segrave” to his fel-low-countrymen—has always been, and still is, a veritable d’Ar.tagnan, a man of adventure through sheer love of devilry; one to whom the very essence of life is in attempting the apparently impossible. He proved this in his eighteenth year—on this occasion for his country, and not for mere personal excitement. This Eton boy, with many other “dare- devils” of this famous school, after a brief experience and military training at Sandhurst, joined the 2nd Warwickshire Regiment. But to the man with speed in his blood, the monotony of- trench warfare, the long, dull, and terribly miserable waitfor action, made no {appeal.

He craved for adventure. He was happy only in epic warfare —where one individual pitted his skill against that of another in a duel to death; it mattered not to him whether it was in air, on land or on sea. And the inevitable happened.. Segrave, almost automatically, became a member of the Royal Air Force. And in this very wonderful “arm” of Britain’s fighting forces he Was indeed a valiant knight. He flew again and again after being literally riddled with shot. He was wounded several times, and when, after being mentioned in dispatches, he. wgs rendered physically incapable of taking further part in active service, he was attached, in 1916, to the G.H.Q. Staff, and eventually acted as private secretary to the Chief of the Air Staff.

To such a. man the ordinary humdrum of civilian life made no appeal at the cessation of hostilities, and Segrave very soon embarked on another flirtation with destiny. He entered into another, phase of the cultivation of speed—this time on the track, and not in the air. He drove Captain A. G. Miller’s Opel 11. at Brooklands im his first real test, and it was a test indeed!

When travelling on the, banking at .over- - lO*} miles pey hour he lost' a rear tyre, but: not his presence of 'ipyid,. and he emerged safely from the ordeal*, actually to win an everit later ip the day with the same car. He rapidly became one of the greatest .of Brooklands drivers, and in 1921 he was a member of the S.T.D. racing team, in company with such famous pilots as K. Lee Guinness, Rene Thomas, and Andre Boillot, and obtained a prominent position in the French Grand Prix, in spite of a series of irritating accidents. It was in 1921 that he obtained bis first big success. He won the J.C'.C. 200 miles race "at Brooklands, rind then went on from triumph to triumph. In 1923 ■he participated in the sensational Sunbeam victory in the French Grand Prix, oyer the San FVdin.stian de Provence—both examples /of superb and physical control.

' He was the first man to travel at ■more than 230 miles per hour on land, bdt although he then desired to retire, America having regained the world’s speed record, he came back to put up a speed of over 231. miles per hour—an epic performance that must surely stand for many years.