Sir Henry O'Neal de Hane Segrave (22 September 1896 – 13 June 1930) was an early British pioneer inland speed andwater speed records. Segrave, who set three land and one water record, was the first person to hold both titles simultaneously and the first person to travel at over 200 miles per hour (320 km/h) in a land vehicle. He died in an accident in 1930 shortly after setting a new world water speed record onWindermere in theLake District, England. TheSegrave Trophy was established to commemorate his life.

Sir Henry Segrave
Segrave at theGrand Prix Sunbeams 1921, 1922 TT
Born	Henry O'Neal de Hane Segrave 22 September 1896 Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Died	13 June 1930(1930-06-13) (aged 33) Windermere,Westmorland, England
Cause of death	crash during water speed record attempt
Education	Bilton Grange thenEton College
Occupation	Speed record holder

Segrave, who was a British national, was born on 22 September 1896 inBaltimore, Maryland, to an American mother and an Irish father. He was raised inIreland and attendedEton College inEngland. He spent some time at 'Belle Isle' house, near Portumna and learnt to drive the family houseboat. He is reported to have attended the North Shannon Yacht Club regatta on Lough Boderg between Leitrim and Roscommon.^[1]

At the outbreak of war theSandhurst officer training course was drastically reduced from two years to three months and he was commissioned in November 1914. Anxious to immediately enter the fray, he applied to join a unit that had suffered heavy casualties and so joined theRoyal Warwickshire Regiment. Always in the thick of the fighting, his soldiers referred to the 18-year-old subaltern as 'The Lion's Cub'. Wounded in the wrist atAubers he was again wounded in hand-to-hand fighting on 16 May 1915. His revolver was clogged with mud so he threw a belt of ammunition at the German he was fighting and the resulting shot went high and hit him in the shoulder.^[2] Whilst recuperating in England, he transferred to theRoyal Flying Corps joining 29 Squadron flying theDH2 fighter. On the first of May 1916 he shot down a GermanAviatik two-seater but was hit by anti-aircraft fire over theSomme in early July and crashed, severely breaking an ankle.^[3] This effectively ended his combat flying. He described himself as "the world’s worst pilot".^[4] and said "I was a rotten pilot, I always seemed to make a mess of landing."^[5]

Segrave became the ‘pilot’ in command on the ground of the first unmanned powered aircraft,the Aerial Target. "This was the first drone to fly under control when it was tested in March 1917."^[6] He marriedDoris Stocker, the well-known actress on 4 October 1917.On 31 January 1918Sir Henry Norman, 1st Baronet theMunitions Inventions Department's permanent attaché to the French Ministry of Inventions requested Segrave be assigned to assist him.^[7] Segrave was sent to the US in the autumn as part of Brig. Gen.Charles Frederick Lee's Headquarter's Staff on the British Aviation Mission.^[8] He sent reports to Norman, including details of the US enquiries into theiraircraft production failures.^[9] After the war, he transferred to theRoyal Air Force Administrative Branch in 1919^[10] but soon resigned his commission due to his war injuries.

After the war, with motor racing in its infancy, British motor manufacturers were starting to build more reliable and faster vehicles. Segrave would soon become a championship winning driver.

In 1921 Segrave won the first long-distance car race to be run inBritain. The200-mile race, which was organised by theJunior Car Club for 1,500 c.c. light cars, was held atBrooklands in Surrey. Segrave won in aDarracq-madeTalbot that were marketed as Talbot-Darracqs.^[11][12] In the same year Segrave competed in his first everFrench Grand Prix, Darracq was reorganised as part of theS.T.D. Motors conglomerate. To impress Breton automobile designer,Louis Coatalen, in order to gain a place in the formidable Sunbeam-Talbot-Darrac Works team, Segrave, replaced fourteen engine covers on his Talbot, a rebadged highly advancedstraight eightdual overhead camshaft (dohc)1921 Sunbeam Grand Prix.^[13] In the1922 French Grand Prix, Segrave was forced to retire in hisGrand Prix Sunbeams 1922 because of chemical burns.^[14]

When he won the 1923French Grand Prix in aSunbeam, he became the firstBriton to win a Grand Prix in a British car. In 1924 he won theSan Sebastian Grand Prix atCircuito Lasarte (Spain). After a further win atMiramas inFrance, he retired from racing to concentrate on speed records.

On 16 March 1926, Segrave set his firstland speed record of 152.33 miles per hour (245.15 km/h) usingLadybird, a 4-litreSunbeam Tiger onAinsdale beach atSouthport, England. This record was broken a month later byJ. G. Parry-Thomas drivingBabs, a custom-built car with a 27-litre 450 hp (340 kW) V12Liberty aero engine.

A year later he became the first person to travel over 200 miles per hour (320 km/h) when he regained the land speed record at theDaytona Beach Road Course on 29 March 1927. UsingMystery (but also known as 'the Slug'), a1000 HP Sunbeam, he recorded a speed of 203.79 miles per hour (327.97 km/h).

On 11 March 1929, Segrave set his final land speed record again atDaytona Beach. Using a new car designed for him by CaptainJack Irving and named theGolden Arrow he set a new record of 231.45 miles per hour (372.48 km/h). Segrave never attempted another land speed record after witnessing the high-speed death of American racing driver,Lee Bible, who was trying to set a new land speed record on 13 March 1929, atOrmond Beach,Florida. TheGolden Arrow, which was never used again, has only 18.74 miles (30.16 km) on the clock. The vehicle is on display along with Segrave'sSunbeam 350HP andSunbeam 1000 hp at theNational Motor Museum, Beaulieu.

On the 90th anniversary of Segrave setting his first historic record, his original Sunbeam racing car returned to Southport where it was driven down Ainsdale beach in March 2016.^[15]

Segrave hadMiss England I built in 1928, in an attempt to retrieve theHarmsworth Trophy from the AmericanGar Wood whose series of high-poweredaero-engine-drivenMiss America boats had made him a multiple water speed record holder and the first man to travel over 100 mph (87 kn; 160 km/h) on water. Although Segrave had already used aero-engines in some of his land-speed record setting vehicles,Miss England I used a singleNapier Lion engine. Instead Segrave believed the boat's speed would come from its advanced lightweight planing-hull design. Wood - along with other American boat designers - thought the design was too flimsy for the speeds. Wood sportingly offered to help Segrave, particularly sharing his experiences in propeller and rudder design.

After his 1929 land speed record, Segrave immediately went toMiami for his speedboat race with Wood which he won. It was the American's first defeat in nine years. After Segrave returned to Britain, he was knighted for his many accomplishments.

On Friday 13 June 1930, a few months after receiving his knighthood, Segrave droveMiss England II to a new record of 98.76 mph (85.82 kn; 158.94 km/h) average over two runs onWindermere. However, on the third run the boat capsized at full speed. Chief engineer Victor Halliwell was killed by the boat rolling over on him as it crashed. Mechanic Michael "Jack" Willcocks survived with a broken arm after being thrown from the craft. Segrave, who was rescued unconscious as the boat sank, regained consciousness for a moment and asked about the fate of "the lads". Shortly after being told that he had broken the record he died from acutelung haemorrhages.^[16][17] Although a large floating branch was discovered near the crash, there has been no definitive cause for the accident. Other theories include the boat's construction. Concerns were raised that its hull was too light in design and construction, particularly around the crafthydroplane which was found partially detached after the crash.^{[citation needed]}

Kaye Don subsequently broke two more world water speed records inMiss England II.^{[citation needed]}

When Segrave's interest in flying returned in the late 1920s he designed an aircraft for luxury touring. The prototype, known as theSaro Segrave Meteor was a wooden twin-engined monoplane. It first flew on 28 May 1930. However, development was delayed due to Segrave's death a month later. Only three metal versions of theBlackburn Segrave were subsequently built.^[18]

In 1930 theSegrave Trophy was established to recognise any British national who demonstrated the most outstanding accomplishments in the possibilities of transport by land, sea, air, or water. The trophy is awarded by theRoyal Automobile Club. Recipients includeMalcolm Campbell (1932),Stirling Moss (1957),Richard Noble (1983),Lewis Hamilton (2007) andJohn Surtees (2013).

Citations

Bibliography

• Henry Segrave (1928).The Lure of Speed. Hutchinson.
• J. Wentworth Day;Malcolm Campbell (1930).The Boys' Life of Sir Henry Segrave. Hutchinson.

• Biography
• Biography at the Brooklands Society
• Speed machines at Channel4.com (down a little)Archived 27 June 2009 at theWayback Machine
• Reprinted fromSpeedboat Kings: 25 Years of International Speedboating by J. Lee Barrett (Detroit: Arnold-Powers, Inc., 1939), Ch.11
• Encyclopædia Britannica article
• Movie No. 7: Windermere 1930: Henry Segrave: Opening of Constantine College by Prince of Wales: The Visit Of HRH The Prince of Wales July 1930Archived 13 September 2016 at theWayback Machine