• Source: Aileen Preston

Aileen Preston (1889–1974) was the first woman in history to qualify for the Automobile Association Certificate in Driving, a chauffeur and suffragette.




Early life


Preston was born in 1889 in County Armagh, Ireland.




Career


Preston put an advertisement in the classified columns of the Morning Post and Votes for Women newspapers, looking for work as a ‘Lady Chaffeuse’ and qualified motor mechanic. The secretary of Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the suffragette movement, contacted her for an interview. Preston was appointed as Pankhurst's chauffeur in April 1911, and was paid £1 a week. Her family thought she was going "straight into the dark arms of Hell" as the driver for "that dreadful woman", but she loved the job.
Preston drove Pankhurst in a large Wolseley car that had been donated to the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) by the heiress Mary Dodge. Motor cars were still quite new and a risky method of travel, and during a single journey through the Lake District she had to fix five tyre punctures. The car was also under Police surveillance.
She was succeeded as the driver for Mrs Pankhurst by Vera Holme, then in 1913, Preston set up the first driving school for women in London.
During the First World War, Preston joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment's Watson Unit. In 1916, she became the head of the first autonomous British women’s ambulance unit. This was based at a field hospital in northern France.




Personal life


She married army doctor John Graham-Jones in 1915 and they had two children.
She died in 1974.




References






External links


1962 Women's Hour interview via the BBC Archives

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