Motor Racing and the World Land Speed Record

Abstract

The present Sir Francis Samuelson (b.1890) who raced for the first time in 1910 and for the last in 1970, always as an amateur and at his own expense, is in many ways typical of the strong-minded individualists who originally built up the traditions of motor racing on both sides of the Atlantic.¹ He came from a family which had already displayed more than its share of character and talent, since his grandfather, Sir Bernhard Samuelson, had been one of the first developers of the iron in the Cleveland Hills of North Yorkshire, where he had met a Mr Dorman and a Mr Long. He made himself a power in the development of Teesside, at one time possessing eight blast furnaces and two hundred coke ovens. Later, as an M.P. for Banbury he earned the gratitude of his country by his tireless campaigning for the development of technical education.