The Bentley Boys…and Girls

Yes, girls, too. In fact, if it hadn’t been for one—Mildred Mary Bruce—the famous Blower Bentley could have stayed an idea rolling around in Sir Henry “Tim” Birkin’s head. Bruce was even more daredevil than most of the Boys. One of her minor accomplishments was in 1929, when she single-handedly drove a lumbering great 4½ -liter Bentley non-stop around the Montlhéry circuit just outside Paris at an average of 89 mph for 24 hours to establish a world record, which was never beaten by any other woman. One of her many major achievements was, in 1930, when she flew solo around the world – after just 40 hours of flying lessons!

The Boys? Most were rich. There was the heir to a Kimberley diamond mine fortune, a highly talented steeplechase jockey, a Harley Street bacteriologist, a journalist and painter, the heir to a Nottingham lace manufacturing fortune, the inevitable “professional” playboy, a couple of aviators, a submariner and even a pearl fishing magnate. On last count there were 16 Bentley Boys – but there were almost certainly more who came and went – whose extraordinary courage and driving skill won the marque the 24 Hours of Le Mans no fewer than five times between 1924 and 1930.