On 26 August 1934, while Whitney was racing to third place in the Comminges Grand Prix, teammate Hugh ‘Hammy’ Hamilton was in Bern, participating in the inaugural Swiss Grand Prix, held at a 4.5-mile circuit in the forest of Bremgarten, to the north of the city.
OTD
OTD 1935, part 1
On 17 July 1935, Whitney married Lady Daphne Finch Hatton at St Margaret’s,Westminster.
Daphne wore a striking dress of heavy silver lamé with long train, and a head dress fashioned in the shape of a crusader’s camail from silver net sewn with orange blossom. Much like his biographer 54 years later, Whitney was clad in black frock coat, grey trousers, pale waistcoat, wing collars and cravat.
On 2 April 1934, at the start of only his second full season, Whitney raced in Easter Monday’s Monaco GP.OTD 1932
On 28 February 1932, Whitney took part in in his first overseas race, the Swedish Winter Grand Prix, over an extraordinary course comprising a twisty 1.2 miles on the frozen Lake Rämen, followed by 27 miles of narrow forest roads. He was still just 19, and had only previously competed at the Shelsley Walsh hill climb – one car at time – and raced on the sands at Southport and the ‘vast concrete prairies’ of Brooklands, where there was plenty of space for overtaking. This was his first outing in a potent Grand Prix car, the 26M Maserati he had recently purchased from Sir Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin.