Outside on the streets of New York, horseless carriages were vying for supremacy over horse-drawn buggies. Inside the five-storey townhouse on East 67th Street, near the corner with Madison Avenue, Dr Cragin’s attempts to induce the baby had failed. It was clear now that the expectant parents would not get their wish – their first child would not be born on election day.
Whitney Straight
Forthcoming events
West London Aero Club, White Waltham Airfield, Maidenhead, 10 December 2025
White Waltham is one of the UK’s oldest and best known airfields. It’s forever associated with the Air Transport Auxiliary, with whom Whitney’s close friend, Diana Barnato Walker, served with distinction. My talk to the members of the club will focus on Whitney’s pre-war civil aviation business; his rise through the ranks from Pilot Officer to Air Commodore with 601 and 242 Squadrons and 216 (Air Transport and Ferry) Group; and his his post-war career with BEA, BOAC and Rolls-Royce.
Dartington Hall, Dorset, 21 October 2025
Thanks to Adam on sound and a mighty projector, the Dartington Trust‘s Arts Curator Peter Nicholson and I were able to create a convivial atmosphere in the Great Hall as we chatted about Whitney, and how his unique position as Dartington’s eldest founding pupil helped form him
Whitney Straight book launch at the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall, 7 October 2025
The Royal Automobile Club’s Pall Mall clubhouse library was the perfect location for the book launch. I spent many weeks there, maybe even months, poring over books and 1930s magazines, and that lovely long room, lined with oak book shelves and with open fires at each end, is quite literally my favourite room in London.
Publication Day, 2 October 2025
The hardback and Kindle versions of the book were published this morning. The occasion was marked with fizz and fillet steak chez nous, wile The History Press published this thought-provoking Q&A we’d worked on recently. Read on…
OTD 1926
On 26 September 1926, Dartington Hall School opened its doors. Its initial intake of nine children comprised Whitney, his sister Beatrice and brother Michael, the son of the man planting Dartington’s apple orchard and five children collected that morning from Totnes railway station.
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 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.
OTD 1935, part 2
One guest at Whitney and Daphne’s wedding had just quit a career as a banker to try stockbroking.
On 2 April 1934, at the start of only his second full season, Whitney raced in Easter Monday’s Monaco GP.