SEGRAVE-THE MAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 256, 29 October 1929, Page 18

SEGRAVE-THE MAN.

D'ARTAGNAN AT THE WHEEL SCHOOL DARE-DEVIL TO SPEED KING. HIS CRAVING FOR ADVENTURE. Sir Henry O'Neal de Hane Segrave— he is plain "Segrave" to his fellowcountrymen—has always been, and still is, a veritable d'Artagnan, a man of adventure through sheer love of devilry; one to whom the very essence of life is in attempting the apparently impossible.

He proved this in his eighteenth year —on this occasion for his country, and not for mere personal excitement. This Eton boy, with many other "dare-devils" of this famous school, after a brief experience and military training at Sandhurst, joined the 2nd Warwickshire Regiment. But, to the man with speed in Ms blood, the monotony of trench warfare, the long, dull, and terribly miserable waiting for action, made no appeal. He craved for adventure. He was happy only in epic warfare—where one individual pitted his skill against that of another in a duel to death; it mattered not to him whether it was in air, on land, or on sea. And the inevitable happened. Segrave, almost automatically, became a member of the Royal Air Force. And in this very wonderful "arm" of Britain's fighting forces he was indeed a valiant knight. He flew again and again after being literally riddled with shot. He was wounded several times, and when, after being mentioned in dispatches, he was rendered physically incapable of taking further part in active service, he was attached, in 1916, to the G.11.Q. Stall, and eventually acted as private secretary to the Chief of the Air Stair.

To such a man the ordinary humdrum v of civilian life made no appeal at the cessation of hostilities, and Segravo very soon embarked on another flirtation with destiny. He entered into another phase of the cultivation of speed—this time on. the track, and not in the air. He drove Captain A. G. Miller's Opel 11. at Brooklands in his first real test, and it was a test indeed!

When travelling on the hanking at over 100 miles per hour he lost a rear tyre, but not his presence of mind, and he emerged safely from the ordeal actually to win an event later in the day with the same car. He rapidly became one of the greatest of Brooklands drivers, and in 1921 ho was a member of the S.T.D. racing team, in company with such famous pilots as K. Lee Guinness, Rene Thomas, and Andre Boillot, and obtained' a prominent position in the French G> - and Prix, in spite of a series of irritating accidents. - -• It was in 1921 that he obtained his; first big success. He won' the J.C.C. 200 miles race at Brooklands, and then went on from triumph to triumph. In 1923 he participated in the sensational Sunbeam victory in the French Grand Prix, over the Tours circuit, and in 1924 lie won the San Sebastian Grand Prix and the Grand Prix de Provence —both examples of superb and physical control. He was the first man to travel /at more than 200 miles per hour on land, but although he then desired to retire, America having regained the world's speed record, lie came back to put up/a speed of over 231 miles per hour—an epic performance that must surely stand for many years.