Betty Haig

Few women have lived a life as fast as this life-long racer

- DELWYN MALLETT

IN 1919, horse-mad 14-year-old Betty Haig bought an ex-War Dept Douglas motorcycle so she could travel to events from her home in West Sussex. As a result, wheels instantly replaced hooves as her life's abiding passion.

Born Elizabeth Haig in Marylebone, London, in 1905, she was the grandniece of Field Marshall Earl Haig and part of the whisky dynasty. She bought her first car, a well-worn ABC, aged 16 with a £50 gift from a great aunt. More than 100 cars and motorcycles followed, many taking a terminal hammering on trips to see her father at the family estate in Fife.

In 1928, without informing her family, Betty somewhat impetuously married Naval Lieutenant Denis Sprague, divorcing only four years later. She spent most of 1930 with friends in South Africa and, on her return, bought a Morgan in which tragedy struck when she inexplicably ran into a stationary car on the Kingston bypass, west of London, killing her passenger, Molly Watkins.