Sheila van Damm (17 January 1922 – 23 August 1987) was a British woman competitor in motor

rallying Rally is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (often called ''rally racing),'' navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. ...

in the 1950s, and also the former owner of the

Windmill Theatre The Windmill Theatre in Great Windmill Street, London, was a variety and revue theatre best known for its nude ''tableaux vivants'', which began in 1932 and lasted until its reversion to a cinema in 1964. Many prominent British comedians of t ...

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 The Alpine Rally, also known by its official name Coupe des Alpes, was a rally competition based in Marseille and held from 1932 to 1971. In the 1950s and the 1960s, it was among the most prestigious rallies in the world and featured an internat ...

. The following year she won the Women's European Touring Championship and, in 1955, the Coupe des Dames at the

Monte Carlo Rally The Monte Carlo Rally or Rallye Monte-Carlo (officially ''Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo'') is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco. The rally now takes place along the French Riviera in Monaco and southeast ...

Biography

She was born in

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

, west London, the daughter of

Vivian Van Damm Vivian Van Damm (28 June 1889 – 14 December 1960) was a prominent British theatre impresario from 1932 until 1960, managing the Windmill Theatre in London's Great Windmill Street. The theatre was famed for its pioneering ''tableaux vivants'' o ...

and his wife, Natalie Lyons. Her upbringing in a Jewish family was certainly unconventional but then her father was an automobile enthusiast and had been a mechanic with Clement-Talbot in the early days of motoring. He encouraged her to learn to drive, at well below the legal age, and her first journey with him was to drive from London to Brighton. In the Second World War she had more conventional training as a

Women's Auxiliary Air Force The Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), whose members were referred to as WAAFs (), was the female auxiliary of the Royal Air Force during World War II. Established in 1939, WAAF numbers exceeded 180,000 at its peak strength in 1943, with over 2 ...

(WAAF) driver. While in the WAAF, she entered her first motor sporting event with her only sister Nona as navigator, as a promotional stunt for the

, which her father managed. 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 The Hillman Minx was a mid-sized family car that British car maker Hillman produced from 1931 to 1970. There were many versions of the Minx over that period, as well as badge-engineered variants sold by Humber, Singer, and Sunbeam. From the m ...

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 The Sunbeam Alpine is a two-seater sports roadster/drophead coupé that was produced by the Rootes Group from 1953 to 1955, and then 1959 to 1968. The name was then used on a two-door fastback coupé from 1969 to 1975. The original Alpine was ...

sports car at an average of at

Jabbeke Jabbeke () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the towns of Jabbeke proper, Snellegem, Stalhille, Varsenare and Zerkegem. On 1 January 2006 the municipality had 13,572 inhabitants. The t ...

in Belgium. In the 1953 Alpine Rally, she and co-driver Anne Hall 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 Circuit Zandvoort (), known for sponsorship reasons as CM.com Circuit Zandvoort, and previously known as Circuit Park Zandvoort until 2017, is a motorsport race track located in the dunes north of Zandvoort, the Netherlands, near the North Sea ...

. 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)

Mk. III works team car. Registered RHP 702 and presently in Australia, this is the only one of six original works cars residing outside the UK. Other works cars were driven by racing drivers Leslie Johnson, Peter Collins and

Stirling Moss Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss (17 September 1929 – 12 April 2020) was a British Formula One racing driver. An inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, he won 212 of the 529 races he entered across several categories of comp ...

. 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 The Sunbeam Rapier is an automobile produced by Rootes Group from 1955 until 1976, in two different body-styles, the "Series" cars (which underwent several revisions) and the later (1967–76) fastback shape, part of the "Arrow" range. The first ...

in the

Mille Miglia The Mille Miglia (, ''Thousand Miles'') was an open-road, motorsport endurance race established in 1927 by the young Counts Francesco Mazzotti and Aymo Maggi, which took place in Italy twenty-four times from 1927 to 1957 (thirteen before World ...

road race, winning their class at . In 1957, van Damm once more entered the

(its final running), again in a works Sunbeam Rapier, this time partnered by David Humphrey. However, they did not finish, losing control on treacherous tramlines and hitting a shop window. After retirement from racing, she became president of the Doghouse Club for motor racing wives and ladies, and president of the Sunbeam Talbot Alpine Register. Sheila had worked with her father at the Windmill Theatre from her teens. He inherited it in 1944, and left it to her on his death in 1960. But the changing nature of

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...

in London caused it to close in 1964. In 1965, Sheila van Damm toured the Tivoli Circuit Theatres in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, with her show, "The Windmill Revue". The show featured a number of former Windmill Theatre artistes. This in turn led her to retire with her sister to their small farm in

Pulborough Pulborough is a large village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England, with some 5,000 inhabitants. It is located almost centrally within West Sussex and is south west of London. It is at the junction of the north–south ...

in Sussex. She died in London on 23 August 1987.

References

* British Movietone, "We Never Closed". Story no. 89002. Released 5-11-1964. Filmed for the last night at the Windmill Theatre. * BBC "Panorama", A television programme made for the finial Revudeville show. 1964. * Van Damm, Sheila. ''No Excuses'' London: Putnam. 1957. * Van Damm, Sheila. ''We Never Closed'' London: Robert Hale. 1967. * Dolinger, Jane. "Jane Visits London's Breezy Windmill." ''Modern Man'', Vol. X111 No. 7-150, January, 1964. * "The Windmill" ''Fiesta'', Vol. 7, No. 4. March, 1973. * Poole, Maurice. "Tonight and Every Night". ''Soho Clarion'' Issue no. 136, Spring 2009. *Windmill Theatre Co., Ltd. Souvenirs and Theatre programmes. * Atkins, Gerry. "Behind the Scenes at the Windmill Revue in Australia." ''Old Theatres'', No. 7, 2011. * "The Windmill Revue." Tivoli Circuit Australia Pty., Ltd. theatre programmes.

External links

Sheila van Damm
''The Scotsman'' (9 August 2006). Retrieved 13 April 2009. {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Damm, Sheila 1922 births 1987 deaths English Jews English racing drivers English rally drivers English female racing drivers Female rally drivers People from Paddington Sportspeople from London English people of Dutch descent

Biography

See also

References

External links