Sheila van Damm

Sheila van Damm (17 January 1922 - 23 August 1987) was a leading British woman competitor in motor rallying in the 1950s, and also the former owner of the Windmill Theatre in London.

She began her competitive driving career in 1950, and won the Coupe des Dames, the highest award for women, in the 1953 Alpine Rally.

She won the Women's European Touring Championship in 1954 and the Coupe des Dames in the 1955 Monte Carlo Rally.

Van Damm was born in Paddington, London, the daughter of Vivian van Damm and his wife, Natalie Lyons. Sheila's upbringing in an all-girl Jewish family generated no interest in motoring beyond her training as a Women's Auxiliary Air Force driver. [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography] She trained as a driver in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and entered her first motor sporting event with her only sister Nona as navigator, as a promotional stunt for the Windmill Theatre. With "Windmill Girl" written on the side of the factory-prepared Sunbeam Talbot they finished 3rd in the ladies section of the MCC-Daily Express car rally. This led to an official Rootes team Hillman Minx in the 1951 Monte Carlo rally.

Her first major success was the Ladies' Prize in the 1952 Motor Cycling Club rally driving a Sunbeam Talbot. The 1953 Monte Carlo rally was marred by punctures, but she entered the record books with a class speed record for 2-3 litre cars, driving the prototype Sunbeam Alpine sports car at an average of 120 mph at Jabbeke in Belgium.

In the 1953 Alpine Rally with Anne Hall as co-driver, they won not only the Coupe des Dames, but also a coveted Coupes des Alpes. Another Coupe des Dames in the 1954 Tulip rally of Holland included outright victory in a 10-lap race around the Zandvoort circuit. The ladies' prize in the Viking rally in Norway clinched the 1954 Ladies' European championship for Van Damm and Hall - a triumph they repeated in 1955 in a (Rootes-prepared) Sunbeam Alpine Mk. III works team car. Registered RHP 702 and presently in Australia, this is the only one of 6 original works cars residing outside the U.K. Other works cars were driven by racing drivers Leslie Johnson, Peter Collins and Stirling Moss.

Van Damm, Johnson and Moss won the Team Prize in the 1954 Monte Carlo Rally driving Sunbeam-Talbot 90 Mk. IIs. Van Damm was in Rootes' Team Prize-winning team again in 1955 and 1956.

The 1956 Monte Carlo rally was her last with Rootes. That year she partnered Peter Harper in a Sunbeam Rapier in the Mille Miglia road race, in which they won their class at 66.37 mph. Remarkably, van Damm finished every event which she started in her five-year career.

After retirement she became president of the Doghouse Club for motor racing wives and ladies, and president of the Sunbeam Talbot Owners' Club (STAR).

She had always worked with her father at the Windmill Theatre, which she inherited on his death in 1960, but the changing nature of Soho in London meant that it closed in 1964. This in turn lead her to retire with her sister to their small farm in Pulborough in Sussex. She died in London on 23 August 1987.

References

External links

* [http://living.scotsman.com/people.cfm?id=1157572006 Sheila Van Damm] . "The Scotsman" (August 12, 2006). Retrieved November 3, 2007.