Mrs Andrews: A Woman Before her Time
                                    
                                    
                                    
                               V J Andrews



Vic Andrews, a well known racing cyclist of the late 1920s and 1930s,
a former London Champion, Polytechnic Club Champion and UK record
holder, describes his mother's major, but now little-remembered, achievements
as one of the country's first professional women cyclists in the late
1890s and early 1900s


Mrs Alice Andrews was, by the standards of the day, a woman before
her time. In the years before the first World War, cycling for women
was seen as a social activity and those women who rode were expected
to do so elegantly, in long skirts and on heavy framed bicycles. Alice
Andrews however was altogether different, one of a small band of pioneering
women cyclists, including such names as Mrs Clara Grace, Miss Maggie
Foster, Mrs Ward, Mrs Rosa Symons and Miss M Harwood who participated
in women's races or, independently of each other, attempted track
and road records on men's machines. She was in the vanguard of those
who wore bloomers for cycling and her sporting activity and dress
were regarded as anti-social, even outrageous, within the society
of the time. On at least one occasion she was booed and jeered by
a crowd that had gathered outside the hotel where she was staying
overnight on one of her sponsored rides.

The active participation of women in sport was not accepted by society
in the years at the turn of the century. Cycling was no exception
and the achievements of women who attempted track and road records
were largely ignored or ridiculed. It was a time when women were denied
their basic political, economic and social rights and the campaign
of the suffragette movement was still gathering pace. It was not until
after the war and the dramatic social changes that were brought in
its wake that organised women's cycling came into its own, a notable
example being the formation of the Rosslyn Ladies Club.

Alice Andrews was born in 1868. I don't know how or when she started
cycling. My father William was by trade a bicycle enameller and line
drawer, who moved with his family to Coventry in 1895 to help establish
the Triumph Cycle Company under its Directors, S Bettmann, a German
and M J Schulte, a Belgian. At the turn of the century he returned
to London to run his own business in Westminster Bridge Road. In later
years the family owned a bicycle shop in the Walworth Road. One of
the earliest stories recounted to me was that my mother and father
used to ride regularly together. Since she, of course, rode a woman's
bicycle with a heavy frame she always ended up physically exhausted.
It wasn't until she swapped bikes with my father and he came back
from a long ride as a physical wreck that she discovered the virtues
of what was then modern technology. From that point her career took
off and she always rode a man's bike.

Family records show that she was most active from about 1895 to about
1910, by which time she was in her early forties and, quite remarkably,
had given birth to eight children, raising six of them. Although she
was an extremely active rider, details of only a few of her record
setting rides remain, all of these being independently witnessed.

Unlike some of her contemporaries, such as Mrs Grace and Miss Harwood
she was never keen on participating in women's track racing, although
she did in fact race against the French at one of the Olympia events
in the mid 90s. The problem with women's track racing was that it
was never officially recognised; standards were pretty variable, from
the frivolous to the serious and the they were regarded more as a
form of entertainment. Instead she concentrated on establishing road
and track records. I have details of three of these.

At Herne Hill in late July 1902, she went for the one hour paced record.
The weekly magazine The Cyclist of 6 August 1902 reported the event
in rather quaint terms.

Almost since the commencement of the season, frequenters of the Herne
Hill track have noticed each evening a little woman taking her practice
spins quietly, and coached by her husband. This lady is Mrs A Andrews,
who in the days when indoor path racing flourished at Olympia, held
her own among many fair riders who came over from la Belle France.
Having done so well in her training and trials, Mrs Andrews was advised
to try what she could do in the hour with tandem pacing on Monday
evening of last week. Starting a few minutes before eight - which
was much too late an hour for record riders, when chill atmosphere
and fading light are considered - the lady cyclist was sent on her
journey, paced by Bert Howard and H Lee and timed by A J Ockleford.

The report gave a detailed account of her ride, with the eleventh
mile being the fastest at 2 minutes 17 seconds. Unfortunately, she
touched the back wheel of her pacers with only ten seconds to go and
fell, having ridden 24 miles 280 yards. The Cyclist concluded `...it
was by no means a bad performance for a lady.' By comparison, the
men's paced one hour record at the time was set in 1900 by H Chinn
at Crystal Palace, where he covered 29 miles, 480 yards.

A photograph taken before the start of this attempt, previously unpublished,
must be one of the earliest images of a female professional cyclist
attempting a record.

My mother rode two twelve hours unpaced Southern Roads records. The
first was on 16 October 1904, from Coulsdon to Chichester and back,
through Arundel to Redhill, completing about 182 miles in a time ten
minutes short of twelve hours. This was really quite a remarkable
ride, bearing in mind that in September, the previous month, the famous
long distance road rider, G A Olley of the Vegetarian Cycling Club
broke the men's twelve hour unpaced Southern Road record held by J
Dudley Diamond. Olley's 208 miles was the first time a double century
had been ridden on southern roads inside twelve hours. Very few women
attempted twelve hours, possibly because of the sheer physical exertion
required and the logistical problems involved. The only other women
that I know of who rode twelve hours were the Bowe sisters, Nellie
and Ada, who did some 166 miles on Northern roads and Mrs Berley,
who rode 171 miles, also in Yorkshire. Even when I was racing with
the Polytechnic in the 1920s and 30s, any man who rode a distance
approaching 200 miles would probably have been awarded a gold medal.

In 1907, on 29 September, she rode a twelve hours Southern Roads record
attempt, completing about 170 miles. It is difficult to calculate
the mileage exactly since her route was unusual, starting at Crawley
and cutting across country to Horsham and then down the Worthing road,
turning off at Offington. From there she went to Arundel, Chichester
and then to Fareham where she started her return journey. Judging
by her checking sheet she must have planned to finish at Crawley,
where she would have completed between 180 and 185 miles. In fact
she appears to have run out of wind between Chichester and Fareham,
averaging only nine to ten miles per hour, so that her original intention
was not realised and she finished instead at West Grinstead.

It was a common occurrence at the time for men cyclists to establish
place to place road records, the most popular being London to Coventry,
London to Bath and London to Brighton and back. It was natural that
the women would emulate their male counterparts and from about the
mid 1890s onwards Mrs Grace, Mrs Ward and Miss Foster all attempted
such records. My mother, on 30 October 1904, rode unpaced from London
to Coventry, a distance of about 90 miles, in 5 hours 54 minutes.
Soon after this ride, on the 6th November 1904, she did London to
Brighton and back, a distance of 104 miles, in 6 hours 54 minutes.
These times were in fact an improvement on those of the others, but
were achieved at a later date. More interestingly, I believe that
these rides were connected with the Stanley Cycling Exhibition, normally
held at that time of the year, because I have an original publicity
poster from the James Cycle Company (which, with The Palmer Tyre Company,
sponsored her rides) proclaiming her achievements. The weekly magazine
Cycling, in a review of the exhibition, but not naming my mother (or
Miss Symons, who was the other rider involved), somewhat condescendingly
wrote:

The bicycles which were ridden by two ladies who did eminently creditable
performances this season are displayed upon the stand encrusted with
the original mud picked up in the course of their travel (Cycling,
23 November 1904). 

According to another review in the Bicycling News she rode a James
path racer which was priced at œ10 and described as `a very speedy
looking machine and came out at a very low weight'(9 November 1904).

On all her rides she carried a `checking sheet' which was signed by
members of the public to authenticate each stage of the ride. These
make interesting reading. In the 1904 12 hour record, her sheet at
Arundel was signed, at the railway station, by a chap called Rogers
who was the railway porter. Pubs featured as convenient checking points,
especially the Globe Inn near Chichester and the Red Lion at Fareham.

Of course, the overall mileage achieved must have been reduced by
the need to get her checking sheet witnessed at each stage. It also
has to be remembered that, unlike modern day road racing, she was
not watered or fed on route by a team of helpers but was very much
on her own, taking her provisions with her. Moreover, although she
didn't have to face the hazards of car traffic, which was virtually
non-existent, the roads were extremely poor.

It was a sign of the times that, with one or two exceptions, mention
of her cycling achievements and records, along with those of other
women cyclists, rarely appeared in the press, a source of deep disappointment
to her. It was not until the end of her career, when her reputation
had ben established and she was a well known cycling personality,
that her name appeared regularly in the press. The sporting tabloid,
Lotinga's Weekly, of 6 September 1913 carried a picture of my mother
in an exhibition race at a Milwall F C sports event with the caption,
`Mrs Andrews, Lady Champion Cyclist of the World'. 

One of the few detailed accounts of her in Cycling did not appear
until 12 April 1917 when she took part in an exhibition race an an
event organised by the Southern Counties Cycling Union at Herne Hill.
Mrs Andrews, then aged 47, was shown racing against an unnamed competitor.
This unnamed cyclist was in fact my sister May, who married H T `Tiny'
Johnson, who was world sprint champion in 1922 and an Olympic medallist.

The report in Cycling read, 

A novelty was the race between Mrs Andrews, the well-known lady rider,
and an unknown lady. The unknown won the first heat, a lap pursuit,
her time being 473/4 seconds to Mrs Andrews 492/5 seconds, but in
a level race over one lap Mrs Andrews turned the tables on her opponent,
winning by a few inches after a neck and neck struggle in 544/5 seconds.




In a subsequent letter J H Stapley, secretary of the SCCU wrote to
my mother thanking her for her `sporting offer and services'. He also
wrote that the SCCU executive 

were very anxious to present to you and daughters with a small token
of appreciation of your help, but unfortunately, owing to the meeting
turning out a financial failure entailing a loss of over œ50 to the
Union funds, that intention has to stand over till an opportunity
arrives in the future.

By the end of the war my mother's competitive cycling career was over,
but she continued to ride well into old age. In 1921 for instance
when she was in her fifties, she took part in a Cycle Touring Club
event covering 100 miles from London to Findon.

Throughout her career she showed a clear determination to break down
the social barriers and prejudices, prevalent at the time, which prevented
women from actively participating in sporting activities; in particular
she showed that women could succeed in cycling. From a historical
perspective, there can be no doubt that, along with only a few other
women she was a pioneering force in women's cycling.