On This Day

Wednesday 17th May 1922

98 years ago

The first English woman ever to compete in a motor race, Dorothy Elizabeth Levitt (40), died. In 1905 she established the record for the longest drive achieved by a lady driver by driving a De Dion-Bouton from London to Liverpool and back over two days. Later that year she set the Ladies World Land speed record at Brighton and the following year she increased it to 90.88 mph (146.26 km/h) at the Blackpool Speed Trial. Levitt's book The Woman and the Car: A Chatty Little Handbook for all Women who Motor or Who Want to Motor, recommended that women should "carry a little hand-mirror in a convenient place when driving" so they may "hold the mirror aloft from time to time in order to see behind while driving in traffic", thus inventing the rear view mirror before it was introduced by manufacturers in 1914. She also advised women travelling alone to carry a handgun; her recommendation was an automatic Colt, as in her opinion its relative lack of recoil made it particularly suitable for women.