Earl Howe's South African wedding

Paging through some pre-WW2 items in my collection that deals with South African motor racing, I stumbled upon an interesting newspaper clipping from December 1937.

It deals with the wedding of Earl Howe (who was in the country at the time to compete in a few races and who also played a major part in establishing motor sport in South Africa during the 1930's). The article is from an Afrikaans newspaper and roughly translated into English it has the following to say:

"A romance that began 14 months ago on board a ship to South Africa, lead to a wedding that today took place in a Johannesburg magistrate's court, It was that of the racing driver Lord Howe and Miss Joyce Mary McLean Jack, a 23 year old student from Johannesburg.

Lord Howe, who's name is indicated as Richard Francis Henry Penn, is 52 years old. The wedding was performed by Mr. Plewman, magistrate of Johannesburg, under special licence.

None of Lord Howe's racing friends attended the ceremony, apart from Mr. V.C. Berrange (Vernon Celliers Berrange was a wellknown pre-war driver from South Africa) who is an official at the court. It is not known where the honeymoon will be spend."


Reading this, a few questions occurred to me :

(a) They refer to Howe as "Lord Howe". Is this an error or is the title "Earl" and "Lord" one and the same. He was also known as Viscount Curzon, I think.

(b) I once read that his real name was Edward Richard Assheton. From where then the names Richard Francis Henry Penn?

© Finally something that interests me the most - Was this the marraige out of which Lady Sarah Curzon was born? As most of you will probably know, she was the wife of Piers Courage and was better known as Sally Courage (a girl I still find most attractive).

By the way, what has happened to Sally in recent years??

Originally posted by Hieronymus




© Finally something that interests me the most - Was this the marraige out of which Lady Sarah Curzon was born? As most of you will probably know, she was the wife of Piers Courage and was better known as Sally Courage (a girl I still find most attractive).

No argument - check the Best looking F1 drivers thread

By the way, what has happened to Sally in recent years??

Have a look at the last chapters of Adam Coopers biography.

I unfortunately do not have the biography of Courage.

You'll find quite a bit of discussion of Earl Howe in this thread. Not sure we definitely got to the bottom of it though!

Quite an interesting thread you mentioned, Richard. Somehow did not have a look there in the past. The name Richard Francis Henry Penn, therefore does not seem to be an invention of the local press, then.

What still interest me - was this girl, Joyce Mary McLean Jack, the mother of Sally Courage??

The pre-WW2 circuit near Johannesburg also went by the name, "Lord Howe Circuit" and not the "Earl Howe Circuit". Further confusion...

Originally posted by Hieronymus
The pre-WW2 circuit near Johannesburg also went by the name, "Lord Howe Circuit" and not the "Earl Howe Circuit". Further confusion...

Ranks in the English Scottish and Irish peerage up to Earl (i.e. Baron, Viscount and Earl) are referred to and addressed as "Lord"; so the Earl Howe would be referred to as Lord Howe just as the Earl of March is referred to as Lord March.

PdeRL

Originally posted by Hieronymus
Reading this, a few questions occurred to me :

(a) They refer to Howe as "Lord Howe". Is this an error or is the title "Earl" and "Lord" one and the same. He was also known as Viscount Curzon, I think.

(b) I once read that his real name was Edward Richard Assheton. From where then the names Richard Francis Henry Penn?

© Finally something that interests me the most - Was this the marriage out of which Lady Sarah Curzon was born? As most of you will probably know, she was the wife of Piers Courage and was better known as Sally Courage (a girl I still find most attractive).

By the way, what has happened to Sally in recent years??

Whilst Googling to check the correctness of my post on Earl Howe in the 'Names, Titles and Terms' thread, I came across the answers to some of these questions.

Edward Richard Assheton Curzon was not 'our' Earl Howe, but his son, who succeeded him in 1964 to become the 6th Earl Howe. This error appears in Georgano.

'Our' Earl Howe was married three times. Joyce Mary McLean Jack was his second wife. His third wife, Sybil Boyter Johnson, was the mother of Sally Courage.

Sally Courage was married again in 1972 to John Aspinall, well-known gambler and zoo owner. He died in 2000.

Thanks Tim!

Sal lives in London and has a cottage on the Howletts estate in Kent, part of Aspinall's zoo. Two of her sons are married and have babies. her youngest lived in South Africa where the Aspinalls had a house but I don't know if she still has that.
Just to add a little, both Earl Howe and Sybil were married several times so there are sheds full of half brothers and sisters.
and No, I don't see her often, we move in rather different circles but occaisionally we meet, the book stired up a lot of things that had been dormant for the last 30 years, we needed to talk them out. The Sal, Nina, Helen moment has never been bettered in my opinion. but then , what do I know?
Loti

Originally posted by LOTI
her youngest lived in South Africa where the Aspinalls had a house but I don't know if she still has that.

Do you perhaps know where in South Africa?

Sorry, I don't know. somewhere near Cape Town I believe, the house will now belong to John's eldest son Damien [by his first marriage] but as far as I know the youngest son, Bassa married a South African lady and lives out there. He is Sal's third son, father is John, then she has two, Jason and Amos,their father is Piers, and then there are Damien and a daughter by John's first marriage.
There seem to be a lot of people who winter in South Africa. sounds wonderful.
Loti

There is a J. Aspinall in Noordhoek on the Cape Peninsula. One of the "upper class" areas in the Cape...perhaps them??