Alfred Edmund Cunliffe's Fatal Crash @ Southport Sands 1928 (Aftermath)
- 6 months ago
Alfred Edmund Cunliffe was very supportive of the racing aspirations of his daughter May Cunliffe Millington, who was a competitor since she was sixteen.
Mr. Cunliffe acquired a 1924 Sunbeam Grand Prix to foster May's progress in racing. With that car they entered an 100-mile race organized by the Southport Motor Club at the Birkdale Sands in Southport, England, on Saturday, 23 June 1928. The race was held over a two-mile circuit which included hairpins and fast bends. May, then aged twenty-one, drove the Sunbeam, and her father worked as her riding mechanic. Approximately sixty miles or so into the race the Sunbeam crashed under unexplained circumstances at high speed. May sustained three broken ribs and lacerations to her shoulder and face in the accident. Mr. Cunliffe was ejected from the car and died at the scene due an artery in his throat being severed.
The race was won by Raymond Mays in a Vauxhall Villiers, after early leader Sir Malcolm Campbell in a Delage had dropped out due to axle trouble.
At the subsequent inquests the evidence suggested that the car had taken a corner too tightly, causing the wheels to dig into loose sand which resulted in a double somersault with the vehicle finally landing on top of the occupants. The verdict was "Death by misadventure".
Her father's death curtailed future racing plans, May decided to abandon racing for good and the Sunbeam was disposed of to Jack Dunfee.
Alfred Edmund Cunliffe, a sixty-one-year old, was said to be from Mellor, Derbyshire, England, but it is unclear whether he was a native or a resident of that town. He married in 1901 and served in the artillery during the World War I, until gassed and invalided home. The owner of a motorcycle and sidecar, he raced a three-litre Bentley at Southport. Both his children, Jack, who was born in 1902, and May, born in 1906, started competing at an early age.
Mr. Cunliffe acquired a 1924 Sunbeam Grand Prix to foster May's progress in racing. With that car they entered an 100-mile race organized by the Southport Motor Club at the Birkdale Sands in Southport, England, on Saturday, 23 June 1928. The race was held over a two-mile circuit which included hairpins and fast bends. May, then aged twenty-one, drove the Sunbeam, and her father worked as her riding mechanic. Approximately sixty miles or so into the race the Sunbeam crashed under unexplained circumstances at high speed. May sustained three broken ribs and lacerations to her shoulder and face in the accident. Mr. Cunliffe was ejected from the car and died at the scene due an artery in his throat being severed.
The race was won by Raymond Mays in a Vauxhall Villiers, after early leader Sir Malcolm Campbell in a Delage had dropped out due to axle trouble.
At the subsequent inquests the evidence suggested that the car had taken a corner too tightly, causing the wheels to dig into loose sand which resulted in a double somersault with the vehicle finally landing on top of the occupants. The verdict was "Death by misadventure".
Her father's death curtailed future racing plans, May decided to abandon racing for good and the Sunbeam was disposed of to Jack Dunfee.
Alfred Edmund Cunliffe, a sixty-one-year old, was said to be from Mellor, Derbyshire, England, but it is unclear whether he was a native or a resident of that town. He married in 1901 and served in the artillery during the World War I, until gassed and invalided home. The owner of a motorcycle and sidecar, he raced a three-litre Bentley at Southport. Both his children, Jack, who was born in 1902, and May, born in 1906, started competing at an early age.