[BITList] Morris Minor, Monte Carlo

[John Feltham]

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Wisdom  [née Gleed],  Elsie Mary  [Bill]  (1904-1972), racing driver, was born at 23 The Parade, Upper Tooting Road, Tooting Graveney, London, on 2 March 1904, the third of seven children and the only daughter of Benjamin John Gleed (1869-1950), master watchmaker and shopkeeper, and his wife, Emma Amelia, nee Avenell (1872-1937). Nicknamed Bill, as a child she rode as 'ballast' on the back of her brothers' motor cycles, and terrified her family by moving from the pillion seat to drive the machines for herself. It was thought that four wheels would be safer, and her first car was a GWK, named after the manufacturers Grice, Wood, and Keiller. She later recalled that she had been 'an enthusiastic motorist' from the age of sixteen, first on two wheels, then four. Aged twenty, she married on 2 January 1925, at Wandsworth register office, a widower, Charles Thomas Swain, master builder, of Tooting Bec, the son of Charles Henry Swain, master builder. She obtained a divorce in 1929. She continued to race in a supercharged Lea-Francis, particularly excelling at hill climbs, and through this she met the amateur racing driver and journalist Thomas Henry (Tommy) Wisdom [see below], whom she married on 14 March 1930. They had a daughter, born in 1934.

Having competed at rallies and hill climbs in a Frazer-Nash, Bill Wisdom had her first drive in 1930 at the Brooklands circuit as an unwelcome wedding present from her husband, who announced that he had entered her for the ladies' March handicap. It became racing legend that she did not speak to him for some time because of his 'unilateral' decision to enter her for the event. She nevertheless lapped at over 95 m.p.h., and the resulting win established her as an extremely popular personality, both at Brooklands and internationally. In spite of Tommy Wisdom's obvious encouragement and pride at the win, Bill's revenge on her husband came later that year at the Shelsley Walsh hill climb, where she shaved a second off his time with the same car. She also set the ladies' record at the Shelsley Walsh hill climb the following year before entering more mixed races.

The first notable achievement in a mixed race at Brooklands came in the 1931 Junior Car Club (JCC)'s 'double-twelve hour' race. This was effectively a twenty-four hour event over two days, as continuous racing into the night had been banned at Brooklands owing to the noise and inconvenience to nearby Weybridge residents. In 1931 Bill Wisdom entered in a Frazer Nash with Don Aldington and, though the car retired early on, it signalled further ambition to enter major events. It perhaps helped her reputation that Brooklands was changing in the early 1930s, and a Brooklands Automobile Racing Club (BARC) prejudice against women entering its prestigious events could be circumvented by entering club competitions hosted at the circuit to gain valuable experience of larger races. Even so the noted Brooklands racer John Cobb was required to verify that she was able to handle a Leyland-Thomas purchased with a view to tackling the ladies' speed record. Though not an advocate of women racing generally, Cobb gave his assent and Bill Wisdom took the ladies' record in autumn 1932 in the BARC ladies' handicap with a speed of 121.47 m.p.h., earning a prestigious Brooklands 120 m.p.h. badge to match that of her husband.

Wisdom's reputation was cemented further in 1932 when she won the JCC 1000 mile race at Brooklands with the Australian Joan Richmond in a works team Riley. This was a prestigious victory over several classes of car using a handicap system. By May 1933 she had cemented her place at Brooklands by coming third to Brian Lewis and Eddie Hall in the JCC international trophy over 250 miles. Just seven of the twenty-eight starters completed the race. In June 1933 her international reputation was also established as a member of the Aston Martin works team at the Le Mans 24 hour race in one of three cars with her partner Mortimer Morris-Goodall while her colleagues Sammy Davis and A. C. Bertelli, and Pat Driscoll and Clifton Penn-Hughes drove the other two. Though her car did not complete the race as a result of a mechanical fault, her attempt brought considerable respect from male drivers and mechanics.

In October 1934 Bill Wisdom borrowed Freddy Dixon's 2 litre Riley, which the owner lent grudgingly, to enable her to make an attempt on the ladies' lap record using the outer circuit of Brooklands. She was allowed by the owner to use it for only three laps in the morning and three in the afternoon. Her first run came to a premature end. A rear tyre tread had come loose, acting as a high speed flail, repeatedly lashing her arm and shoulder until the car was stationary. When a new tyre had been fitted, she took the record in the afternoon session at 126.73 m.p.h. The episode was characteristic of the stories of women drivers of the period experiencing considerable discomfort while trying to maintain a calm public face.

In June 1935 Bill Wisdom partnered Kay Petre in a works Riley at the Le Mans prix d'endurance race, in a year that George Eyston led three MGs driven by Barbara Skinner, Eileen Ellison, Colleen Eaton, Joan Richmond, Doreen Evans, and Margaret Allen. Though the Riley had to retire, the occasion marked an unusally high number of women drivers in the event, including France's Anne Itier. Different models of MG became one of Wisdom's speciality marques. She drove a Magnette at the Brooklands 500 mile race in September 1935, when she was among the four women (along with Doreen Evans, Kay Petre, and Gwenda Stewart) invited by the BARC to take part.

In 1936 Wisdom drove a Fiat 508S in the Irish tourist trophy, and a Jaguar SS100 in the mountainous 1936 international Alpine trial where she and Tommy Wisdom were winners, but she was again in an MG when she partnered Tommy in the 1000 mile race in Italy (the mille miglia) in 1937. Another Le Mans start followed in 1938 in an MG Midget PB with Arthur Dobson, but ended prematurely with clutch and radiator trouble. At Monte Carlo in 1938 she favoured an MG PB, and, partnered with Dorothy Stanley Turner, finished twenty-third overall. The popularity of the MG as a sportscar for the road was helped by the publicity accorded to these women drivers on the track and in rallies.

After the Second World War, Wisdom and her husband moved increasingly into rally driving. In 1949 she drove a Morris Minor in the Monte Carlo rally, co-driving with Betty Haig and Barbara Marshall. Tommy remained supportive of Bill's career until they were both hospitalized in the Alpine rally in 1951. The accident effectively ended Bill's career. She and Tommy settled at Ferring, Sussex. She died suddenly at 43 Beach Road, Littlehampton, Sussex, on 13 April 1972.

Bill Wisdom was one of the most significant of the group of women drivers that participated in mixed events, especially at the Brooklands circuit, in the 1920s and the 1930s. They became sporting heroes to both men and women, and were admired by racing motorists and historians of the sport. After obtaining her driving licence in 1956 her daughter, Ann (Wiz) Wisdom, partnered Pat Moss to success in the 1960 Liege-Rome-Liege rally in an Austin Healey 3000.

Bill Wisdom's second husband, Thomas Henry  [Tommy] Wisdom  (1907-1972), racing driver and motoring journalist , was born at Barton House, Dover Road, Preston, Brighton, Sussex, on 16 February 1907, the eldest son of Thomas Bertram Wisdom (1879-1958), journalist, and his wife, Annie May, nee Attwater. Like Bill, Tommy was a familiar sight at Brooklands, mainly driving Rileys but also competing in the Leyland Thomas Straight 8. He also, like his wife, held a Brooklands 120 m.p.h. badge. He competed in the Le Mans 24 hour race on twelve occasions and Monte Carlo rallies twenty-five times. During the Second World War he was an RAF wing commander. He became a leading motoring journalist and was a founder of the Guild of Motoring Writers, writing in later years as Tom Wisdom. He died at a nursing home, 22 Somerset Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, on 12 November 1972 and was cremated at Worthing crematorium.

Jean Williams 

Sources  S. C. H. Davis, Atalanta: women as racing drivers (1955) + S. Davis, 'Bill Wisdom: a tribute', Motor (20 April 1972), 2 + W. C. Boddy, The history of Brooklands Motor Course (1957) + 'Woman on the track: Mrs Wisdom talks to Mrs Sam Sloan', Auto Motor Journal (3 March 1931), 6-7 + E. Wisdom, 'Tete a tete: a well known woman motorist gives a woman's view of the 1934 models', Autocar (6 Oct 1934), 622-3 + 'Like mother, like daughter', Motor (30 June 1936), 26 + women drivers file, Brooklands Archive + www.joanrichmond.com,  accessed on 2 Oct 2012 + The Times (13 Nov 1972) + census returns, 1911 + b. cert. + m. certs. + d. cert. + b. cert. [Thomas Wisdom] + d. cert. [Thomas Wisdom]
Likenesses  Putnam, photograph, 1930, PA Images, London · Bassano, whole-plate glass negative, 1931, NPG [see illus.] · Barratts, group portrait, photograph, 1932 (with Sir Henry Birkin), PA Images, London · Barratts, group portrait, photograph, 1932 (with Joan Richmond), PA Images, London · Barratts, group portrait, photograph, 1935 (with Gwenda Stewart, Doreen Evans and Kay Petre), PA Images, London · photograph, c.1936 (with Kay Petre), Mary Evans Picture Library, London; repro. in Illustrated London News (26 Sept 1936), 548 · photographs, repro. in Davis, Atalanta · 
Wealth at death  £21,820: probate, 17 July 1972, CGPLA Eng. & Wales · £8753-Thomas Henry Wisdom: probate, 19 Feb 1973, CGPLA Eng. & Wales




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