Elsie Mackay (21 August 1893 – 13 March 1928) was a British actress, jockey, interior decorator and pioneering aviator who died attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean with Walter Hinchliffe[ BBC Radio 4 Making History – Elsie Mackay – article and downloadable broadcast] Her stage name as an actress was Poppy Wyndham.
Biography
Elsie Mackay was born on 21 August 1893 in Simla,
West Bengal,
British India, to James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape of Strathnaver, a
United Kingdom colonial administrator in India who became chairman of P&O and Jean Paterson Shanks. Her father was serving as President of the
Bengal Chamber of Commerce, as a member of the Legislative Council of the Viceroy of India, and as a member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India.
She was reportedly disinherited by her family after eloping with actor Dennis Wyndham to be married on 23 May 1917. She appeared on the stage and screen as Poppy Wyndham from 1919 to 1921. This marriage was annulled in 1922.[Many sources confuse and conflate her career with that of the Australian born actress of the same name, but she was still performing after 1935.That Elsie Mackay was married to the English actor Lionel Atwill from 1920 until their divorce in 1928.]
As Poppy Wyndham she was the first woman jockey in England, and in her short career on the turf she piloted no less than a dozen winners under the barriers. In the few events from which her sex did not bar her, her colours - yellow and blue - were always present, and always were heavily backed.
Filmography
Poppy Wyndham's film career included:
[ The Complete Index To World Film since 1895][ Hollywood upclose – database for Poppy Wyndham]
-
A Great Coup (1919) as Kate Hampton
-
Snow in the Desert (1919)
-
Many a Slip (1919) as The Girl
-
A Dead Certainty (1920) as Pat Stone
-
The Town of Crooked Ways (1920) as Queenie Clay
-
The Tidal Wave (1920) (as Carmen Hale / Columbine)
-
A Son of David (1920) as Esther Raphael
Interior design
After the marriage to Wyndham was annulled she returned to her family and developed a career as an interior decorator, creating lavish interiors,
and public spaces for her father's
Shipping, the P&O. In 1923 she launched the , and went on to design much of the interiors for the four P&O "R" class ships of 1925:
HMS Rawalpindi, , and , plus the in 1927.
[ P & O Line Ships (and technical data) from 1920 to 1930 ]
Flying
In 1923, she took up flying, gaining her pilot's licence at the
De Havilland Flying School, probably the second woman since World War I after 'Mrs Atkey',
bought a plane,
[ Ayrshire Post article – So Brave and so Beautiful] and expressed a determination to be the first woman to fly the
Atlantic Ocean. She was regarded as a contemporary
role model amongst women, with dark looks, graceful manner, and a habitually well-dressed and bejewelled appearance. She was noted for driving her Rolls-Royce at great speed and was a familiar sight in her
Avro biplane in the skies over
South Ayrshire and
Wigtownshire.
[ Picture of Elsie in her Avro Biplane at Jamd.com] She even participated in an "outside loop", the most dangerous of all stunts in air, with Capt. E. C. D. Herne as her pilot. During this manoeuvre her safety-strap broke but she clung to bracing wires while her body swung outside the plane like a stone twirled on the end of a piece of string.
She was one of the first women in Britain to gain her Royal Aero Club pilot's licence and was later elected to the advisory committee of pilots to the
British Empire Air League.
Transatlantic flight
To achieve her transatlantic ambition Mackay bought a Stinson Detroiter, having been impressed by the aircraft during
Ruth Elder's failed 1927 transatlantic attempt (despite an oil leak causing the failure from the Azores over the Atlantic
[ Hargrave – Profile of Ruth Elder]). It was shipped from the US to Britain and delivered to the
Brooklands Auto racing track, which at the time was also used as an airfield. She named it
Endeavour. It was a
monoplane with gold tipped wings and a black
fuselage, powered by a nine-cylinder,
Wright Whirlwind J-6-9 (R-975) engine, with a cruising speed of .
[ World War I Modeling Page – WGR Hinchliffe forum]
In early March 1928, the Daily Express discovered that Captain Hinchliffe and Mackay were preparing for a transatlantic attempt by carrying out test flights at RAF Cranwell and were staying at the George Hotel in Leadenham
At 8:35 am on 13March 1928, Endeavour took off from RAF Cranwell, Lincolnshire,[ World War I Modeling Page -Hinchliffe forum] with minimal fuss as Hinchliffe had told only two friends he was going and Elsie registered under the pseudonym of 'Gordon Sinclair'.'[ Old News of Newfoundland] Approximately five hours later, at 1.30 pm the chief lighthouse keeper at Mizen Head on the south west coast of Cork, Ireland saw the monoplane over the village of Crookhaven.[Roseberry, C.R. (1966), The Challenging Skies: The Colorful Story of Aviation's Most Exciting Years, 1919-1939, pp. 132-134. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc.] A crowd of 5,000 is reputed to have waited for them at Mitchel Field, Long Island.
Commemoration
Elsie Mackay is commemorated by a
stained glass window in the
chancel of Glenapp Church in the
parish of
Ballantrae,
Ayrshire (where her father owned the
Glenapp Castle).
[. Ballantrae Parish Church ] , now somewhat overgrown, spell out "Elsie" on the opposite side of the glen.()
A street is named after her in Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Her financial legacy was the Elsie Mackay Fund, a £500,000 trust bequeathed by her father that was left to the British nation on 12 December 1928, for 50 years and used to help pay off the
Government debt.
[ National Archives – Elsie Mackay Fund][ Parliamentary reference to the Elsie Mackay Fund in Hansard]
See also
External links
