Enid Riddell

Riddell died in London in March 1980 at the age of 76.

In 1973 Wolkoff visited Riddell in Spain. With her eyesight failing, Riddell allowed Wolkoff to drive, and the pair’s car was struck from behind, throwing Wolkoff out to her death.

Riddell drove an Austin-Healey 100 registered NUE 854 with co-driver Betty Haig in the 1954 Paris St. Raphael. The pair finished seventh overall, taking a class win in the 2000–3000 cc class and a Coupe de Vitesse.

Riddell took second place, a first in the 2 L class, and the Coupe des Dames trophy in July 1946 at the Rallye des Alpes Françaises driving a 1937 AC 16/80 Competition Sports, registration EPJ 101, partnered with Betty Haig.

After her release from prison in 1943, Riddell resumed her activity in right-wing groups. She later moved to Málaga, Spain, where she ran a club called La Rascasse (“The Scorpion Fish”), a reference to the tight final corner of the Grand Prix course at Monaco, and the bar located inside its radius.

In January 1940 Riddell, Wolkoff, Kent and Don Francesco Maringliano Duco Del Monte, an Italian assistant military attaché in London, met at the restaurant L’Escargot in Soho. Riddel and Del Monte tried to arrange another meeting with Kent at La Coquille restaurant, but by this time Kent had already been arrested. Riddell was called to testify as a witness for the defence for Kent and Wolkoff.

Riddell’s flat was raided on 21 May 1940. Apart from Riddell’s message to Kent, nothing significant was found. Riddell was interviewed at Scotland Yard, and her uncooperative responses convinced the officer questioning her that she knew more than she was saying, and that immediate detention was warranted.

In 1940 Riddell was convicted of offences under the Official Secrets Act 1911, then detained under the expanded Defence Regulation 18B (DR 18B) and interned in Holloway prison.

In May 1936 Riddell and K3008 ran the hillclimb at La Turbie, where she took second place.

She appeared in the Monte Carlo rally again in 1934, this time in an AC 16/80, paired with co-driver H. Comtesse Moy.

In 1933 Riddell appeared in the Monte Carlo Rally driving an Alvis Speed 20, retiring due to fuel problems.

In May 1933 she bought a new MG K3 Magnette, chassis K3008, registered as AGW 37. The car was loaned to Hugh Hamilton, who drove it in the 1933 Mannin Beg and at Donington Park on 19 August the same year. Riddell drove K3008 in the 1934 Rallye Paris – Saint-Raphaël Féminin, where she finished first in class and 2nd overall, and also posted fastest time of the day on the Pougues Les Eaux hill climb stage.

Enid Mary Riddell was a British socialite and racing driver during the 1930s and ’40s. She was also a member of some far-right political groups in the United Kingdom and was imprisoned for violating the Official Secrets Act during World War II.

At the 1937 24 Hours of Le Mans an MG PB owned by George Eyston was co-driven to a sixteenth place finish by Dorothy Stanley-Turner and a driver listed as Joan Riddell. Some references assert that Joan Riddell was actually Enid Riddell. While some have suggested that the name Joan Riddell is a conflation of Enid Riddell and Joan Richmond, one source mentions both Joan Riddell and Joan Richmond as distinct persons at the race. Another source of biographical information for the 1937 race records a full name of Joan Hardwick Riddell, born in Wales on 16 April 1912, died July 1997 in Surrey. A summary written shortly after the event lists Enid Riddell as Dorothy Turner’s partner in an MG in the 751-1100 cc class.

Riddell was born in Marylebone, London, on 23 March 1903.

Riddell had been recruited to the RC by Anna Wolkoff, daughter of Admiral Nikolai Wolkoff (1870–1954), the last Imperial Russian naval attaché posted to London before the revolution. Wolkoff held right-wing, antisemitic, anti-communist views and was considered a Nazi sympathiser. Her family was naturalised, and ran the Russian Tea Rooms in London. Riddell and Wolkoff maintained a long-lasting association.