Dorothee Pullinger displays honours trailblazing automotive engineer
Dorothee Pullinger displays honours trailblazing automotive engineer
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Driving Force: Dorothée Pullinger and the Galloway Car celebrates
the achievements of British engineering pioneer, business woman and racing
driver Dorothée Pullinger. Dorothee co-founded the Women’s Engineering Society
(WES) and we are delighted the new display opens in its centenary year.
The
centrepiece is a rare Galloway motorcar built in 1924 at the Heathhall factory
Pullinger managed, which was legendary for the large number of women engineers
it employed. Pullinger led by example paving the way for women
in engineering as well as in motor sport. She defied the
conventions of the time by becoming a young engineer, but in 1920 she came up against the prevalent gender-bias of the time
when she applied to join the Institution of Automobile Engineers and was turned
down on the grounds that ‘the word “person” means a man and not a woman’.
Dorothée
Pullinger was born in France in January 1894. Her father was the car designer
Thomas Pullinger. The family moved to the UK and in 1910 she started work at
Arrol-Johnston, a car manufacturer in Paisley, Scotland, where her father was a
manager.
When
World War One started Dorothée was in charge of female munitions workers at
Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria. While employed there she introduced a canteen
system that provided meals for the workers and ended up being responsible for
around 7,000 people. She
was later awarded an MBE for her work during the war. After the war Dorothée returned to Scotland and to cars, resuming
her engineering training. From there she became the manager of the Galloway
Engineering Company, a subsidiary of Arrol-Johnston, at its factory near
Kirkcudbright. In the early 1920s production of the Galloway motor car began.
Dorothée Pullinger played a central role in its success.
Galloways
were described by Light Car and Cycle magazine
in 1921 as ‘built by ladies, for those of their own sex’. This was exactly what
Dorothée had envisaged. Smaller and lighter than most cars of the time, it
featured gears in the middle of the car rather than outside, the steering wheel
was smaller with the seat raised and the dashboard lowered.
The
1920s was a difficult time for independent car makers, only 4,000 Galloways
were made and the factory ceased production by the end of the decade. The
Galloway car on show at Riverside Museum is believed to be one of only 15 that
remain worldwide and one of only four in Scotland.
Dorothée
also liked to drive and in 1924 she was ‘the
first lady competitor’ to enter an annual race called the Scottish Six Days Trials.
She won the silver cup. Also on show are two loaned objects from the
Pullinger family; a
small racing medal awarded to Dorothee in 1922 and her A5 sketchbook from 1908,
featuring watercolours painted near their
home in Dalry when
she was 14. These are complemented by a thistle mascot that would have been on
the bonnet of select cars, an engine badge, a Galloway catalogue, a cloche hat
and a pair of 1920s shoes. Inside the car a specially-commissioned costume will
be presented to reference the costume Dorothée
wore
when she competed in the 1924 Scottish Six Days Trials.
Three
films help bring the story to life for visitors. The first, an interview with
two young Scottish rally drivers, Erica Winning and Amy McCubbin, who describe
what it is like to be female rally drivers today and compare their experience
with Dorothée’s racing in the 1920s, explaining why
she is such an inspiration. A second features a young engineer dressed in the
Galloway factory uniform talking about the car and its key elements. The last
film introduces two of Dorothee’s children speaking about their mother.
Driving Force: Dorothée Pullinger and the Galloway Car is located on the ground floor of Riverside
Museum by the car
wall at the South entrance.
Venue Map
Venue
Pointhouse Place, Glasgow, G3 8RS
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