Marjorie Cottle

Miss Marjorie Cottle (1900 - 1987) was an English professional motorcycle racer. Her greatest success was the International Six Days Trial of 1927, in which the British Ladies' Team won the International Silver Vase. The trials were held in the Lake District, and attracted a large number of competitors.

Motorsport bicycle maker Raleigh Bicycle Company, which was still manufacturing motorcycles during the 1920s, provided a lightweight machine to Marjorie Cottle, a leading motorcycle sports rider and then probably Britain's best known female motorcyclist, to use on a well-publicized 1,400 mile journey around the country. One retailer’s journal, The Garage and Motor Agent, was particularly enthusiastic about Miss Cottle's promotional activities on behalf of the motorcycle industry. She was, it declared, “undoubtedly one of the trade's most useful propagandists.” Not only did she demonstrate that physical strength was not crucial for operating a motorcycle but this magazine was especially impressed with “the fact that Miss Cottle always manages to look nice when engaged in her exploits, and not the least like a professional motor cyclist.” In that way she “produces the best possible impression on the public” (Jones 532). Marjory (or Marjorie) Cottle was one of Britain's best known motorcyclists in the 1920s. She competed regularly in races and reliability trials, and was considered to be one of the best riders in the country – male or female. According to a recent article by motorcycling journalist Steve Koerner:

• 1924 Raleigh trials rider Marjorie Cottle and fellow Raleigh teamsters Evans and Hadfield, taken in 1924. This was chosen as Ken was friendly with Marjorie and recreated Ms Cottle’s Round Britain trip, on his own Raleigh.RALEIGH 1924 Booklet. 'Round the Coast Ride' by Hugh Gibson and Marjorie Cottle.
• By 1926 there were so many women participating in various races and trials throughout Britain that the Motor Cycle Manufacturers' Union, the industry's trade organization, decided to honour some of the more prominent ones with a special banquet in London. The occasion was well publicized, not only in the mainstream press but also in motor cycle publications and even women's magazines such as 'Home Notes'.

Auto Cycle Union selects as British B squad for the International Six Days Trial (ISDT) the team of female riders Marjorie Cottle, Louise MacLean and Edyth Foley. Because of the 1925 ban on road events, sand-track racing develops popularity in the UK (continued until 1939).

• 1927 Cottle won prizes for the best performance by a "lady rider" in the Scott Trial.

In August 1927, the News of the World carried a picture of Cottle, Edyth Foley, Miss Louise MacLean and two other leading female motorcyclists, Mrs M Grenfell and the appropriately named Mrs Spokes. The five were described as "the British ladies who triumphed in the International Trials" on 20 August. This was presumably the International Six Days' Trial of 1927, in which the British Ladies' Team won the International Silver Vase. The trials were held in the Lake District, and attracted a large number of competitors

• 1928 Cottle won prizes for the best performance by a "lady rider" in the Scott Trials, she was the only woman to complete the course. Dies gelang bis heute nur Mary Driver in the sixties, Maria Conway and Katy Sunter. After competing in the famous Scott Trials, the magazine 'The Motor Cycle' had to admit she had successfully finished the gruelling course "while burly men had given up from sheer exhaustion.
• 1929 ISDT Cottle rode in Munich #113 on a Raleigh where she finished with a Silver Medal
• 1930 ISDT where Cottle was one of the 6 women in the 42 British entrants in Grenoble #38 on a BSA she finished with a Gold Medal
• 1931 ISDT Italy Cottle was one of four ladies, #78 riding a BSA in Class C (500cc) and was one of the 36 finishers of the 46 starters in that class and won one of the 24 C Class gold medals
• 1932 ISDT in Italy Cottle #19 riding a BSA 250cc in Class A finished with a Gold Medal
• 1933 ISDT in Wales #94 riding a BSA 250cc in Class A finishing with a silver medal after losing 5 points in the 3rd Day
• 1934 ISDT in Germany #80 riding a 249cc in Class A finishing with a Gold medal
• 1935 ISDT in Germany #197 riding a BSA 348cc in Class B running clean each day until the last check at Immerstadt on the 5th day where she abandoned the event.
• 1937 Startet Sie mit der Nr. 25 in der Klasse A auf einer BSA 250 für die BSA Cycles Ltd.
• 1938 BSA Competitors 22 Mrs Miriam L. Anning 250 BSA Empire Star with 41 Marjorie Cottle 249 Triumph
• 1939 In 1939, the ISDT was held in Nazi-controlled Austria in the last few days before England declared war on Germany. That year, Britain sent both a civilian and a military team to compete. After four days, when it seemed that war could break out at any minute, British officials told the civilian team to return to England immediately. Cottle refused to leave and competed on the fifth day alongside the British Army team. When they too were ordered to abandon competition, Cottle and the Army team rode their motorcycles to neutral territory in Switzerland.

Even Marjorie Cottle eventually gave up competing. According to Koerner: For several years afterwards, however, she was employed by the BSA company as one of their motor cycle sales representatives although she seems to have been kept in the showrooms not where she wanted to be, out on the road or riding in competition events. ...

By the end of the decade 1930er Jahre, an official of the manufacturers’ trade association had to admit that only a paltry 25,000 of Britain’s estimated 700,000 motorcyclists were female. Literatur [Bearbeiten]

• Mika Hahn, Fritz J. Hahn: Faszination des Erfolges - Das Sport-Leben der Ilse Thouret . Korschenbroich: Rheinischer Mobilia-Verlag 2004, ISBN 3-938140-00-3

Chris Stevens of Surrey & Isle of Man Historian & Author, David Wright.