22 Facts About Fay Taylour

Fay Taylour, known as Flying Fay, was an Irish motorcyclist in the late 1920s and a champion speedway rider.

Fay Taylour was interned as a fascist during the Second World War.

Fay Taylour's family was well off by the standards of the time: her father was a district inspector in the RIC and they lived at Oxmanton Hall in the centre of Birr.

One of her maternal aunts, Hilda Webb, was an active suffragette and a young Fay was taken to visit her when she was imprisoned in Holloway gaol.

Fay Taylour's uncle maternal George Webb, was a mathematician and fellow of Trinity College Dublin, married to paediatrician Dr Ella Webb, founder of the Children's Sunshine Home in Stillorgan.

Fay Taylour was educated at Miss Fletcher's boarding school in Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin, and in 1919 went to Alexandra College, then in Earlsfort Terrace, where the Conrad Hotel now stands.

Fay Taylour left school in 1922 and joined her family in Berkshire, where they had moved following the creation of the Irish Free State which had led to the end of the Royal Irish Constabulary, her father's employer.

Fay Taylour's mother was terminally ill and Taylour looked after her and the home until her mother died in 1925.

Fay Taylour had learned to drive a car at the age of 12 and learned how to ride a motorcycle in her new home.

Fay Taylour was the first rider from Europe to compete in Australia and New Zealand, ending her first race in Australia equalling the track record and beating Western Australia champion Sig Schlam.

Fay Taylour became popular with racing promoters as she could attract crowds of over 30,000 people to watch her race.

Fay Taylour's popularity led to her appearing on cigarette cards, wearing scarlet racing leathers emblazoned with an Irish flag, and appearing on radio shows.

Fay Taylour's motorcycle racing career came to an end when women were banned from competing in speedway, in the UK and then in Australia and New Zealand.

Fay Taylour went to India in 1931 where she won her first major car race, setting a new course record for the Calcutta to Ranchi event.

Fay Taylour was the only woman competitor in the race, as she had been when she drove a works Aston Martin in the Italian Mille Miglia.

Fay Taylour took part in 1934 in the Craigantlet hill climb in County Down.

Fay Taylour's racing clothes were a jumper and a tweed skirt, according to a newspaper report of the event.

Fay Taylour said, that the day she met a man who was more difficult to handle than a racing car, she would probably give up racing.

Fay Taylour was held without trial, first at Holloway gaol, where her aunt had once been imprisoned for suffragette activities, then in 1942 in a camp on the Isle of Man.

Fay Taylour was released in 1943 on the condition that she live in neutral Eire, where she continued to be monitored by MI5.

Fay Taylour became the only leading woman driver from pre-war days to resume racing after the war, when she returned to racing on circuits around the world, although her appearances became fewer.

Fay Taylour died from a stroke at the Dorset County Hospital, Dorchester, on 2 August 1983.