Memories of a racing nanny

As nanny and personal assistant to motor racing world champion Graham Hill, Andrea Thorlby found herself in the jet set world of Formula One. Interview by Roger Belton.

Growing up in the tiny Lincolnshire village of Horbling, Andrea Thorlby (née Wesley) would regularly hear the raucous roar of a V12 BRM engine echoing through the countryside as the latest grand prix challenger was put through its paces at the nearby disused airfield at Folkingham.

Although not really interested in motor racing at the time, Andrea, who is known affectionately as Andy, says she was aware of BRM, the local grand prix team.

While she paid little heed to the exploits of the Bourne-based team, at the age of 21 she was thrust into the glamorous world of Formula One, attaining the unique position of being employed by one world champion, as nanny to a future world champion.

To her surprise, in early spring 1968 Andy had secured employment with one of the most popular sporting icons of his generation, and his formidable wife Bette (whom she always referred to as Mr and Mrs Hill).

Today, 78-year-old Andy, who lives in Bicker, explains that she had harboured no ambitions to work with young children. It was only when her employer at the time was reluctantly on the verge of making her redundant from her transport office job, that she considered his wife’s advice that she would be ideally suited to working as a nanny – having witnessed her organisational ability and her affinity with her own children.

Joining the Hill family
By chance, such a job was advertised by Baxter’s Agency in Peterborough that week, working for a couple named Hill in London. Her then employer, an enthusiastic motor racing fan, browbeat her into applying for the role.

There followed a successful interview with Pam and Tony Rudd (team manager and chief engineer at BRM, the team with whom Graham had won the World Championship in 1962 before leaving for Lotus).

Andy found herself travelling to Mill Hill for an interview with Bette, where she was immediately offered employment as a mother’s help, despite no formal training as a nanny.

And so began her extraordinary tale of working for one of the most charismatic and famous sportsmen of his time, acting as an indispensable assistant and much-loved nanny as she nurtured Damon and his two sisters, Brigitte and Samantha. Her job saw her travelling around Europe as part of the Formula One circus, rubbing shoulders with the most talented drivers in motor racing and other famous figures: “It changed my life and introduced me to a whole new world,” she recalls. 

Andy’s ties with the family over the next five years grew strong and she remains in regular contact with them even today, 50 years later.

Andy looks back on the experience with immense fondness, as she treated the Hill children as if they were her own. She vividly recalls some amusing encounters from her European travels with the Hill family as she became immersed in the jet set world of Formula One of the 1960s and early 1970s.

After one trip to visit close friend and fellow racing driver, Jo Bonnier, in his Swiss home, Graham took Andy into Geneva, calling at the airport where Graham had landed his private plane a few days earlier.

Andy explains: “On this occasion, owing to heavy air traffic, Graham opted to take a commercial flight to Germany, but needed to collect some items from his own plane, so drove straight up to his aircraft. As he was unloading, I became aware of a vehicle rapidly approaching in which the military police were armed with machine guns trained on us!

“Graham kept reassuring me and repeating ‘Keep calm’ and ‘Don’t say anything’ as we were escorted to an interview room where Graham was questioned intently. Clearly, they were not entirely convinced by his explanation as at one point they tugged at his moustache to see if it was false! After a lot of argy-bargy, they let him go and I continued my journey by bus to Geneva as planned, but it was quite a frightening experience!”

Fond memories
It is clear that Andy retains a great deal of affection and respect for Graham and was deeply impressed by his attitude towards the race fans who flocked to the meetings.

One boiling hot day at Monza after the Italian Grand Prix, the children were becoming somewhat fractious as they waited with Andy and Bette in the hire car, but were delayed by Graham who was surrounded by a throng of admirers. He insisted on signing autograph after autograph, saying to his impatient family, “This is our bread and butter.”

As a sporting icon, Graham carried a considerable weight of authority. When the Hills were away from home for an extended period, the children loved visiting Lincolnshire with Andy and enjoyed squelching through dykes in their wellies and scenic walks with their Golden Retriever, Honey.

On one occasion, however, a crisis arose when their Ford Executive car, which Andy had loaded up to make a swift return to London, broke down. Time was of the essence so Graham instructed Andy to take a taxi to RAF Cranwell, to where he would pilot his private plane to collect them.

“So, there I was, like a refugee in reception at RAF Cranwell with three young children, a dog, an enormous teddy bear and a suitcase, insisting that Mr Hill would be flying in to collect me.

“They were totally unaccommodating, but their attitude changed from dismissive to highly attentive when they checked my story and discovered that Mr Hill was the former world champion, who had by now contacted them to gain permission to land there!”

Andy also recalls a memorable occasion when Graham conveyed his great respect for his Lincolnshire employee when the whole family were staying with famous names of the motor racing world, including five-time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio, at the opulent Villa d’Este Cernobbio on Lake Como.

A fellow driver’s nanny advised her to follow her lead and make arrangements for Andy and the children to eat supper in their hotel room, rather than mix in the company of the affluent and famous in the dining area.

However, when Graham discovered the proposed change of plan, he was furious. “He marched us all downstairs, insisting that we sit at the prized central table. ‘Never forget that you’re as good as the next!’ he declared, ‘You’ll sit here every night!’”

Later, Andy and the family were staying in the Schloss of FIA President Prince Paul Metternich and his wife Princess Tatiana. During the evening function, to which numerous dignitaries had been invited, Graham typically introduced her with the words, “This is Andy, a friend of the family who lives with us.”

Ups and downs
Over time it became commonplace for Andy to rub shoulders with some of the most important people in the land, even if she was not always able to identify them!

On one occasion when Graham, representing the President’s Eleven, and a host of household names were playing a charity cricket match just before the British Grand Prix, she caught sight of a pleasant young man smiling at her from afar.

“I was sure I recognised him but could not quite place him. I had an idea it could have been one of the BRM mechanics? No, I was informed, it was Prince Charles.”

The future king had established a strong friendship with Graham as a result of the latter undertaking a testing role with the road-going Aston Martins.

Another time, whilst staying at the cottage in Kent which was owned by Lord and Lady Brabourne, the Hills were invited to a winter shoot. On her way back from delivering a hamper for lunch, Andy came across the Queen and Prince Philip walking across the lawn, but resolved not to loiter.

In spite of the glamour, every driver was acutely aware of the possibility of paying the ultimate price on the track, but suppressed these fears and remained stoic.

When Graham and Bette travelled to distant races he instructed Andy, who remained at home with the children and with Graham’s mother for company, to ring Reuters news agency, usually at 6pm on a Sunday, to find out the race results.

“It was always an anxious time as the clock ticked towards six and there was a great sense of relief when we learned Graham had come through unscathed.”

For the first 18 months that she was employed, these phone calls conveyed reassuring news – until one fateful day in the autumn of 1969.

The phone call which rocked the family was the news that Graham had sustained severe injuries in a near-fatal accident whilst competing in the American Grand Prix; his car had left the Watkins Glen track and he had been thrown from the cockpit, sustaining two broken legs.

Andy was able to witness the extraordinary resilience of her employer, by now a veteran grand prix driver, as he underwent an intensive programme to regain full fitness for the following season.

By 1972, with the children growing up, the Hills were no longer in need of a full-time nanny, and Andy retreated to Lincolnshire, from where she kept in constant touch.

Three years later, after Graham retired and set up his own Embassy Hill Grand Prix racing team, she was again requested to assist the family, this time on a short-term basis as the family grieved for Graham’s loss.

Graham had become a world renowned ambassador for this most thrilling and dangerous of sports and competed in 176 grands prix, but ironically lost his life, together with five other team members, when his private plane came down in thick fog near Elstree in November 1975.

Andy remained close to the Hill family and followed young Damon’s progress as he embarked on a similar sporting career once he had left school. As a teenager Damon took up motorcycle racing on less than a shoestring budget, and his schedule brought him to Cadwell Park in the Lincolnshire Wolds.

“He was camping in a tent and his only nutrition was some ‘Bar Six’ Cadbury’s chocolate,” Andy recalls.

“It was a good job I’d brought him some Lincolnshire sausages to give him some sustenance!”

Damon soon switched to cars and his career culminated in 1992 when he became world champion, the first son of a world champion to achieve this ultimate dream.

“I was lucky at the time to get that job but I would advise anyone today starting work for someone in the public eye just to be yourself and to take it in your stride.”

Graham clearly acknowledged Andy’s no-nonsense approach, exemplified when he turned to his son after young Damon had been admonished by Andy for a misdemeanour, and said, “That’s what you get when you have a Lincolnshire nanny. No mucking about!”

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