The Hon Mrs Victor Bruce

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The Honorable Mrs. Victor Bruce lived a life of excitement unparalleled in modern times. Born Mildred Mary Petre in 1895, she showed a fascination with speed and danger even as a child. She began her road racing career on her brother’s motorbike at age 15, flying along the country lanes with her collie in the sidecar. Repeatedly hauled into court for speeding, she soon graduated to automobiles, and moved her racing from country lanes to tracks and regulated courses – such as the Monte Carlo Road Rally, where she won the Coupe des Dames in 1927. She was a regular competitor in European road races, and at tracks in England. She and her husband set a 10-day endurance record at Montlhéry near Paris in 1927. They drove another car 250 miles beyond the Arctic Circle – farther north than anyone had ever driven. In 1929 she drove a 4.5 litre Bentley for 24 hours, to capture the world record for single-handed driving, averaging over 89 mph —a mark which has never been surpassed by a woman. After setting more speed and endurance records in speedboats, she decided one day in 1930, apparently on a whim, that she would fly alone around the world— never mind that she had never flown an airplane! She bought a Blackburn ‘Bluebird,’ took flying lessons, and set out after only 40 hours of flying experience. She was the first person to fly from England to Japan, the first to fly the Yellow Sea, and the first woman to fly around the world alone (crossing the oceans by ship). It was a five-month journey marked by hair-raising adventures: a crash-landing beside the Persian Gulf, a near-abduction by brigands, a forced landing in a southeast Asia jungle during a monsoon. Home again in triumph, she resumed auto racing, joined a flying circus, flew helicopters, and captured horse show ribbons. She helped pioneer mid-air refueling in Britain and was a major force in pre-war commercial aviation, establishing several freight and passenger airlines. Her factory rebuilt damaged RAF planes during WWII, and when peace returned she continued her enterprising ways with a variety of enterprises which made her a millionaire. Never losing her passion for adventure, she test-drove a Ford Ghia Capri 110 mph at age 79. At age 81 she looped the loop in a 2-seater Chipmunk after a brief refresher course in flying. She titled her autobiography “Nine Lives Plus,” and when she died in 1990 at age 94, she had lived them all, to the hilt. The first complete biography of this remarkable British woman is in the works, with full details of her public and private lives.