EDITORIAL, December 1932

EDITO 1AL

SFTERAL items of news which appear throughout this issue of MOTOR SPORT will serve to remind our readers of the failure to perretuate the memory of British national motor-racing heroes.

From Germany comes the news that one of her great pioneers, Charles Benz, is to have a monument erected in his memory at his birthplace, Mannheim. Then France is to honour one of her sons who gave his life in the pursuit of speed, Andre Boillot, to whose memory a tablet will be raised at La Chatre next year. Simultaneously, we learn that the citizens of Daytona, U.S.A.—the scene of Sir Henry Segrave’s historic feat of being the first man in the world to attain a speed of 200 m.p.h.—have decided to name a street after the celebrated British motorist. While Segrave lived, his wonderful career received full recognition when His Majesty the King graciously conferred upon him a knighthood. On every public

Honouring our National Heroes.

appearance he was feted by the public as a national hero. The public welcomed the opportunity thereby offered of expressing their admiraton of an epic achievement, and Segrave’s name Was a household word as an example of British sportsmanship. But since his death, nothing has been done in England to perpetuate his memory. Never has England had such a motor-racing hero as the late Sir Henry Segrave. He is the only Englishman ever to have won the Blue Riband of Motor Racing, the French Grand Prix, and at the time of his death he was the holder of both Land and Water Speed

Records of the world. The fame of J. G. Parry Thomas, the greatest figure Brooklands racing has ever known, was confined to the Track, and in any case his name has been perpetuated in the way he would have most wished li’mself—by the endowment of two cots in a Children’s Hospital. But Segrave’s only memorial in England is his classic book, a perusal of which will stir in the minds of its readers thoughts of renewed admiration of this gallant gentleman. In America a street is to bear his name, while the greatest honour paid to his posthomous memory was the action of the Greek poet, Gabriel D ‘Annunzio in calling the Cup which he donated for the Lake Garda Meeting, the Segrave Motor Boat

Trophy.

Is it not time that Britain honoured her greatest motor-racing hero in some way which will keep his glorious memory before the Youth of the nation as an example of highendeavour, courage , and sportsmanship? Before our next To our issue appears the Readers. Christmas holi

days will be over and gone, so that we take this opportunity of wishing all our readers the very best of good cheer during that period of concentrated festivity. Not the least important feature of Christmas activity since the introduction of the automobile has been the number of people who spend the holiday in some country inn, only accessible by road, where all the oldfashioned atmosphere of Yule-tide can be readily recaptured.