- William Grover-Williams
Charles Frederick William Grover-Williams (born
16 January 1903 - last seen towards the end of March 1945, believed executed soon afterwards) [ [http://www.grandprix.com/ft/ft00367.html F1 - Grandprix.com > Features > Historical > "Williams" - the forgotten hero ] ] was aGrand Prix motor racing driver andwar hero .Born to an English father and a French mother in the
Montrouge suburb ofParis, France , Grover-Williams grew up fluent in both the French and English languages. WhenWorld War I broke out, his family moved toMonaco where he got a job as a chauffeur. Mechanically inclined, and fascinated by motorized vehicles, Charles Frederick William Grover-Williams bought a motorcycle and began racing. Returning toParis , in 1919 he worked as the chauffeur for the famous Irish war artist, SirWilliam Orpen .Racing career
By 1926, Grover-Williams had begun racing a
Bugatti in races throughout France, using the alias "W Williams"cite book
last = Higham
first = Peter
title = The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing
publisher = Guinness Publishing
date = 1995
pages = 200-208, 542
isbn = 0-85112-642-1] , entering the "Grand Prix de Provence" atMiramas and theMonte Carlo Rally . In 1928 he won theFrench Grand Prix , repeating in 1929. That same year, driving a Bugatti 35B, painted in what would become known as British racing green, he won the inauguralMonaco Grand Prix beating the heavily favored Mercedes of the great German driver,Rudolf Caracciola .In November 1929, Grover-Williams married Yvonne Aubicq, whom he had met when chauffeuring the two around Paris. Successful financially, they maintained a home in a fashionable district of Paris while owning a large house in the resort town of La Baule,
Pays de la Loire , on theBay of Biscay , which was home to one of the annual Grand Prix races. In 1931 he won theBelgian Grand Prix atSpa-Francorchamps . He also won theGrand Prix de la Baule three consecutive years (1931 to 1933). Then his career waned and he was out of racing by the latter part of the 1930s.World War II
Following the Nazi occupation of France in
World War II , Grover-Williams fled toEngland where he joined theRoyal Army Service Corps . Due to his fluency in French and English he was recruited into theSpecial Operations Executive (SOE) to foster theFrench Resistance . He recruited fellow racing driverRobert Benoist and together they worked in the Paris region to build up a successful circuit of operatives, forming sabotage cells and reception committees for parachute operations.On
August 2 1943 , Grover-Williams was arrested by the SD and underwent lengthy interrogation before being deported to Berlin and was then held prisoner in theSachsenhausen concentration camp .Posthumous
He was believed to have been executed in the spring of 1945 along with
Francis Suttill , another important SOE network leader.Acknowledgement
Grover-Williams is recorded on the
Brookwood Memorial inSurrey ,England , and as one of the SOE agents who died for the liberation of France, he is listed on the Roll of Honour on theValençay SOE Memorial in the town ofValençay ,Indre ,France .Racing
Racing Major Career Wins
*
Belgian Grand Prix 1931
*French Grand Prix 1928, 1929
*Grand Prix de la Baule 1931, 1932, 1933
*Monaco Grand Prix 1929Complete European Championship results
() (Races in bold indicate pole position)
References
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