Henry Segrave was born on 22 September 1896 in Baltimore, Maryland, to an American mother and an Irish father. He was raised in Ireland and attended Eton College in England. He spent time at 'Belle Isle' house near Portumna, learning to drive the family houseboat and attending regattas at the North Shannon Yacht Club on Lough Boderg.
Segrave was commissioned into the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in November 1914, joining a unit that had suffered heavy casualties. He was wounded twice in 1915, first in the wrist at Aubers and again in hand-to-hand fighting where he threw a belt of ammunition at a German soldier. After recuperating in England, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, flying the DH2 fighter. A crash in July 1916, resulting in a severely broken ankle, ended his combat flying career. He described himself as "the world’s worst pilot", stating "I was a rotten pilot, I always seemed to make a mess of landing." He later became involved with the first unmanned powered aircraft, the Aerial Target.
After the war, Segrave began competing in motor racing. In 1921, he won the first long-distance car race in Britain, a 200-mile event for 1,500 c.c. light cars at Brooklands in Surrey, driving a Darracq-made Talbot. He competed in the French Grand Prix the same year, and worked to impress Louis Coatalen of Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq, even replacing fourteen engine covers on his Talbot.
In 1923, Segrave won the French Grand Prix in a Sunbeam, becoming the first Briton to win a Grand Prix in a British car. He followed this with a win at the San Sebastian Grand Prix in 1924 at Circuito Lasarte, Spain, and another at Miramas in France. After these successes, he retired from racing to concentrate on speed records.
Segrave first set a land speed record on 16 March 1926, reaching 152.33 miles per hour (245.15 km/h) using Ladybird, a 4-litre Sunbeam Tiger, on Ainsdale beach. He regained the record in 1927, becoming the first person to exceed 200 miles per hour (320 km/h), achieving 203.79 miles per hour (327.97 km/h) at the Daytona Beach Road Course in Mystery, a 1000 HP Sunbeam. On 11 March 1929, he set his final land speed record at Daytona Beach, reaching 231.45 miles per hour (372.48 km/h) in the Golden Arrow. He never attempted another land speed record after witnessing the death of Lee Bible at Ormond Beach on 13 March 1929.
Segrave also pursued water speed records. In 1928, he built Miss England I to challenge Gar Wood, the reigning Harmsworth Trophy holder. He won a race against Wood in 1929, ending Wood's nine-year winning streak. Following this victory, Segrave was knighted.
On Friday 13 June 1930, Segrave drove Miss England II to a new water speed record of 98.76 mph (85.82 kn; 158.94 km/h) average over two runs on Windermere. During the third run, the boat capsized at full speed, killing his chief engineer, Victor Halliwell. Segrave was rescued unconscious and, after briefly regaining consciousness and inquiring about his crew, died from acute lung haemorrhages. The cause of the accident remains uncertain, with theories including a floating branch or flaws in the boat’s hull construction.
In the late 1920s, Segrave designed an aircraft for luxury touring, the Saro Segrave Meteor, a wooden twin-engined monoplane. The prototype first flew on 28 May 1930, but development was halted by his death a month later. Only three metal versions of the Blackburn Segrave were subsequently built.
The Segrave Trophy was established in 1930 to recognise outstanding achievements in transport by land, sea, air, or water, and is awarded by the Royal Automobile Club. Recipients include Malcolm Campbell (1932), Stirling Moss (1957), Richard Noble (1983), Lewis Hamilton (2007) and John Surtees (2013).
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