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.
One guest at Whitney and Daphne’s wedding had just quit a career as a banker to try stockbroking.
No sooner have I handed the completed manuscript over to audio book publishers Blackstone than I’m delighted to say they’ve appointed Simon Vance to narrate it.
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.
We have a cover! I chose the image, of Whitney powering his 26M Maserati through Shelsley Walsh’s Upper Ess on his way to taking a massive 1.6 seconds off the hill record, during the September 1933 meeting. Rather aptly, the event organisers, the Midland Automobile Club, provided the image from their archives.
The death of Prince Philip brings to mind some of the occasions his path crossed Whitney Straight’s. One such moment, on 31 January 1952, was captured by Pathé News.
Tonight, I shall be at a dinner at New York’s India House, remembering the co-founding member of the club who died 100 years ago today – Willard Dickerman Straight.
On this special day, I’ve been re-reading some of the research notes I’ve made in Cornell University’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections. Among many treasures, it holds the personal correspondence between Whitney Straight’s parents, Willard and Dorothy.
On the door of my study is an old American road sign, directing drivers to a small town down the road named Whitney. Insert a comma, and ‘WHITNEY STRAIGHT, AHEAD’ is my direction of travel.
On 2 April 1934, at the start of only his second full season, Whitney raced in Easter Monday’s Monaco GP.