Paddy Naismith or Eirane Redmond Naismith (16 May 1903 – 28 November 1963) was a British actress, pilot and racing driver. She appeared in an early live colour TV demonstration.

Life

She was born in 1908 to parents John Naismith and Mary Francis (née Redmond) Naismith. Her father sold car tyres and her mother was a well known

clairvoyant Clairvoyance (; ) is the magical ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () ("one who sees cl ...

. Her sisters, Jill and Sheila, were also actresses. She trained at the

Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts The Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts is a performing arts conservatoire based in Woking, England. It was founded in 1911 by Italia Conti, an actress. The first production at Italia Conti Academy was the play '' Where the Rainbow Ends''. F ...

. In 1928 she was working with the Welsh Person Elder Company, who were making silent films based on the novels by the English writer WW Jacobs, with Jacobs involved in the creation of the films. The first film made was titled "The Bravo". Fifty actresses were auditioned and Jacobs was said to be impressed by Naismith, who was chosen to play Lucy, the lead role. Naismith became a friend of

Derwent Hall Caine Sir Derwent Hall Caine, 1st Baronet (12 September 18912 December 1971) was a British actor, publisher and Labour politician. Biography Caine was the son of British novelist Hall Caine and his wife Mary Chandler. He was born at Keswick in Cu ...

, who was an actor who went on to be a Member of Parliament. In 1929 they were reported to be engaged but this was later retracted. He was notorious for having a number of illegitimate children, but through him she met Ishbel MacDonald who served as hostess to her father Ramsay MacDonald, who was Prime Minister. A live image of Naismith was used to demonstrate

John Logie Baird John Logie Baird FRSE (; 13 August 188814 June 1946) was a Scottish inventor, electrical engineer, and innovator who demonstrated the world's first live working television system on 26 January 1926. He went on to invent the first publicly dem ...

's first all-electronic colour television system named

Telechrome Telechrome was the first all-electronic single-tube color television system. It was invented by well-known Scottish television engineer, John Logie Baird, who had previously made the first public television broadcast, as well as the first color broa ...

. In the same month she was competing with her own car in a concours competition. Her first motorsport experiences were in rallies and she often drove Standard cars for these events. She entered the RAC Rally in 1932 and 1933. She raced at

Brooklands Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfie ...

between 1931 and 1934, often in a supercharged

Salmson Salmson is a French engineering company. Initially a pump manufacturer, it turned to automobile and aeroplane manufacturing in the 20th century, returning to pump manufacturing in the 1960s, and re-expanded to a number of products and services ...

belonging to Derwent Hall-Caine. Her debut at the track was in

Barbara Cartland Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland, (9 July 1901 – 21 May 2000) published as Barbara Cartland was an English writer, known as the Queen of Romance, who published both contemporary and historical romance novels, the latter set primarily duri ...

's 1931 "Society Ladies' Private Handicap", a pretend race held for the benefit of a film crew. All of the Society Ladies used MGs. She won a genuine Ladies' Handicap in 1933 against nine other women, including

Fay Taylour Fay Taylour (5 April 1904 – 2 August 1983), known as Flying Fay, was an Irish motorcyclist in the late 1920s and a champion speedway rider. She switched to racing cars in 1931. She was interned as a fascist during the Second World War. Afte ...

and Elsie Wisdom. In 1934, she entered the BARC First Long Handicap in July and the First Kingston Junior Long Handicap in October. She finished third in both races. The second of these was her last race at the circuit and she was fined for exceeding track limits. In 1934 she was photographed by the Bassano company, and a photo is in the National Portrait Gallery.

Private life

She married John Towers Mynors, an RAF officer, in 1941.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Naismith, Paddy 1903 births 1963 deaths 20th-century British actresses British female racing drivers Alumni of the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts