Glen Kidston

Le Mans drivers
Name = Glen Kidston


Nationality = flagicon|UK British
Years = 24hLM|1929-24hLM|1930
Team(s) = Bentley Motors Ltd.
Best Finish = 1st (24hLM|1930)
Class Wins = 1 (24hLM|1930)

George Pearson Glen Kidston (23 January 1899 – 5 May 1931, Natal, South Africa) was a record-breaking aviator and motor racing driver from Britain. He was a member of the infamous Bentley Boys of the late 1920s, and possibly the wealthiest of that already wealthy set.cite web | last = Kimes | first = Beverley Rae | title = Glen Kidston: A Boy and His Bentley | url = http://www.autoquarterly.com/bentley.html | accessdate = 2007-02-12 ] He was one of the four, core, Grosvenor Square-based members, whose day-long parties passed into contemporary legend.cite web | last = Gear Wheels | first = | title = Bentley Boys | url = http://www.gearwheelsmag.co.uk/features/bentleyboys.htm | accessdate = 2007-02-12 ]

A former Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy — torpedoed twice during World War I — Glen Kidston competed in numerous races including prestigious events such as the Monte Carlo Rally, Isle of Man TT motorcycle races, and Shelsley Walsh hillclimb. He entered the Le Mans 24 hour race in 1929 and 1930. On the second occasion he won the race, driving a Bentley Speed Six in partnership with Woolf Barnato.

In early 1931, Glen Kidston completed a record breaking flight from Croydon to Cape Town.cite web | last = McAdam | first = J | title = Birth of an Airline | url = http://www.rhodesia.nl/Aviation/rana.htm | accessdate = 2007-02-12 ] He completed the journey in just 6½ days, flying a specially adapted Lockheed Vega monoplane.cite web | last = Time | title = British Tragedies | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741766,00.html | accessdate = 2007-02-12 ] However, Kidston was never to make the return trip. After earlier near misses in aeroplane, motorcycle, speed boat and even submarine accidents, Kidston was killed, only a year after his Le Mans triumph, when his borrowed de Havilland Tiger Moth broke up in mid-air while flying through a dust storm over South Africa.cite web | last = Benjafield's Racing Club | title = Glen Kidston | url = http://www.historic.benjafieldsracingclub.co.uk/html/glen_kidston.html | accessdate = 2007-02-12 ]

References