WWII: Brewer’s mistress and Spitfire story

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Vivienne Smith tells the remarkable story of the Cockney urchin who captivated a Burton brewer and went on to help finance the forerunner of the world-famous Spitfire as Britain’s richest woman.

THE Spitfire famously played a crucial role in the Battle of Britain, a major turning point of the Second World War. Designed by R J Mitchell, the aircraft owed much of its success to its Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, the forerunner of which was developed in Derby for the Schneider Trophy air races of the 1920s.

But there is one key player in this story who is often overlooked.

Lady Houston, the one-time mistress of a Burton brewer, backed the British team in the contest when the government withdrew their support.

Born Fanny Lucy Radmall, in London, on April 8, 1857, she was the daughter of box-maker Thomas Radmall, who worked at a warehouse in the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral.

In her early years, the Cockney youngster ran wild like a street urchin and received little in the way of schooling.

By 1872, she was working as a juvenile actress on the London stage.

The pretty teenager soon attracted the attention of 32-year-old Frederick Gretton of the well-known brewery Bass, Ratcliff & Gretton in Burton on Trent.

His family lived at Bladon House, in Winshill, just north of the town.

Fred had joined his older brother, John, in the company on the death of their father, also named John, in 1867.

Over the next five years, his main involvement with the firm was in the malting department.

But then he fell head-over-heels in love with Lucy Radmall.

Despite already being married, he eloped with the 16-year-old to Paris where they lived together as man and wife.

The fact that they could never wed excluded them from certain circles, but this did not stop Paris society from being captivated by the lively couple.

Lucy, who became known as Mrs Gretton, was admired as a great beauty of her day.

Her devoted lover showered her with gifts and, when he died in Paris in 1882, aged just 42, Fred Gretton left her £7,000 a year for life (an annual income of around £750,000 in today’s money).

Lucy Radmall never forgot the first and greatest love of her life. Half a century later, she told a friend: “Today is a very sad day to me. Someone I loved dearly died on this day 50 years ago.

“He worshipped me and said I was the apple of his eye. Now wasn’t that a sweet thing to say?”

Thanks to the money left her by the Burton brewer, the Cockney lass was able to climb up the social ladder. In September 1883, she married Theodore Francis Brinckman, the eldest son of a baronet.

But they divorced 12 years later.

Her second husband was the 9th Baron Byron of Rochdale. Their marriage lasted 16 years until his death in 1917.

Finally, in December 1924, Lucy wed the Liverpool shipping magnate Sir Robert Paterson Houston. When he died less than 18 months later, he left her more than £5.5m (today around £300m) in his will.

The box-maker’s daughter was now the richest woman in Britain.

This wealth would eventually be put to good use in funding the British entry into the most prestigious event in the aviation calendar.

Established in 1913 by Frenchman Jacques Schneider, the Schneider Trophy was an international award presented annually to the country with the fastest seaplane over a specified course.

According to the regulations, the winning nation hosted the contest the following year. Any team with three consecutive wins would be awarded the trophy for good.

Britain had emerged the victor in 1914, 1922 and 1927, but then came a change in the rules.

In order to allow competitors more time to develop their aircraft, the contest was now to be held every two years.

The next race would, therefore, be held in England in September 1929.

The designer of the British Supermarine entry since 1922 had been Reginald J Mitchell, and he now decided a more powerful engine was needed for his seaplane.

A meeting with Henry Royce and his senior designers soon bore fruit.

Early in 1929, work began on the new engine at the experimental workshop at the Rolls-Royce factory on Nightingale Road, in Derby. To produce what became known as the “R” engine was a huge task.

Hundreds of hours had to be spent in testing, much to the annoyance of local residents.

The “Derby Hum”, as it became known, continued from early morning until well into the evening, and the noise could be heard up to five miles away.

This was because not only was the “R” engine running at full throttle on the test bed, but also three other aero-engines were also operating at the same time.

One of these supplied a cool flow of air over the crankcase, while another kept the testing shed free of fumes.

The third maintained a stream of air over the prototype’s air-intake to simulate conditions in flight.

Four “R” engines were built and each, in turn, had to be shipped to Calshot on the Solent, near Southampton, where the race was to take place.

There it was tested in Mitchell’s specially-adapted Supermarine S6 aeroplane, and then returned to Derby to be overhauled.

To facilitate transport, a lorry was fitted with a special cradle to carry the engine. As the trip was usually made overnight, the vehicle was dubbed “The Night Phantom”.

That autumn, the Derby engineers were celebrating the result of all their hard work.

On September 7, the S6 seaplane, powered by the new Rolls-Royce “R” engine and piloted by Flying Officer Dick Waghorn, took first place in the Schneider Trophy at speeds averaging 328.6mph.

Britain had now won the race twice in succession. A third victory would secure the trophy outright.

But, as plans got under way for the next fixture, there came a bombshell.

Faced with economic depression, the Government, led by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, refused to give financial backing to the British team. There was a public outcry and the Press had a field day.

In one newspaper article, R J Mitchell expressed concerns about the decision: “British aircraft today are unquestionably superior to any other aircraft in the world but, if we drop our research work now and allow things to drift, in a year of two’s time we may have lost that position.”

By January 1931, the Government was still adamant.

Then Lady Houston entered the fray. Immensely patriotic, she was determined that Britannia should rule the waves in everything.

In a cable to Ramsay MacDonald, she wrote: “The supremacy of English airmen can only be upheld by their entrance for the Schneider Trophy and, as I consider this of supreme importance...I will guarantee the whole amount of one hundred thousand pounds.”

The figure would be in excess of £5m in today’s money.

With just seven months left before the competition, work on the aircraft began apace.

While Mitchell made various improvements to his seaplane design, the engineers at Derby faced the task of increasing the power of the “R” engine from 1900hp to 2350hp.

Throughout the spring of 1931, the people of Derby were, once again, subjected to the ear-splitting roar of engine testing.

Despite the short time available, the team at Rolls-Royce succeeded in producing an engine both more powerful and more efficient then its predecessor.

As Arthur Sidgreaves, the firm’s managing director, commented at the time: “It is not too much to say that research for the Schneider Trophy contest over the past two years is what our aero-engine department would otherwise have taken six to 10 years to learn.”

On September 13, 1931, vast crowds gathered on the shores of the Solent to witness Britain’s attempt to secure the celebrated trophy for the third and last time.

Lady Houston watched in style from her steam yacht “Liberty” which stood at anchor offshore.

Because of various technical problems, both the French and the Italians (the only other contenders that year) had had to pull out just days before the race. Even so, the Supermarine S6B seaplane still needed to complete seven laps of the 31-mile course to win.

To the delight of the spectators, Flight Lieutenant John Boothman put the sleek blue and silver aeroplane through its paces, roaring around the Solent at an average speed of 340.08mph.

Thanks to a lot of hard work, and the generosity of Lady Houston, the Schneider Trophy was now Britain’s for ever.

The icing on the cake came two weeks later, when the S6B aeroplane took the world speed record beyond 400mph for the first time, recording speeds of 408.8mph.

The know-how gained from the intensive development of the “R” engine proved invaluable in the evolution of the Merlin engine.

This, combined with Mitchell’s experience with racing seaplanes, would result in the birth of a classic aircraft.

In March 1936, the first prototype of the Supermarine Spitfire took to the skies.

Sadly, the aeroplane’s designer never lived to see the tremendous achievement of his creation during Britain’s finest hour some four years later. Nor did Lady Houston witness this final outcome of her public-spirited gesture.

The woman who had helped secure the Schneider Trophy for Britain died on December 26, 1936, just months after the Spitfire’s first flight.

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