THRICE-WED GWENDA, THRICE-CITED PASHA, AND MARGARET THATCHER’S SECTION 28 PART 2

YESTERDAY, AN R&T TALE FROM 1961 GOT ME RESEARCHING GWENDA JANSON STEWART HAWKES NÉE GLUBB. We continue in Part 2 today with, among other adventures, Gwenda marrying Hawkes and, years later, being the inspiration of three lesbian mechanics in protest of Margaret Thatcher. There’s Gwenda’s brother Glubb Pasha as well. 

Attempting Le Mans and the Monte. Gwenda co-drove Maserati-engined Derby cars at the 1934 and 1935 Le Mans 24-hour, albeit retiring early in both events. Motorsports Memorial recounts, “She even tried her hand at rallying, taking part in the 1934 Rallye de Monte Carlo at the helm of a 1933 Derby V8 starting from Valencia.”

Above, Gwenda Stewart (her name at the time; she became Hawkes in 1937) and Douglas Hawkes with Derby Convertible and Coupe. Below, these days, the Convertible resides at the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum.

WWII and After. Motorsport Memorial sums up, “Gwenda Stewart-Hawkes’ racing career came to an end at the outbreak of World War II. With her third husband, she returned to England where she trained as a lathe operator and served in munitions factories. After the end of the war she worked in Hawkes’ business, the Brooklands Engineering Company Ltd. until they decided to move with their yacht Elpis to the Greek islands. He died in 1974 in Athens, Greece; she lived in the island of Poros until her death in 1990, at the age of 96.”

Certainly a life competitively- and well-lived.

Gwenda’s Garage. A bizarre offshoot arises in Catherine Love’s “Gwenda’s Garage Review—Scrappy Celebration of Sheffield’s Female Mechanic Activists,” The Guardian, October 25, 2025. Love recounts, “Set against the backdrop of Tory rule and Section 28, this rousing musical is based on the real-life hub for feminist and queer protest set up by three pioneering women.”

The real Gwenda’s Garage, named in her honor, was run by three women in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, cited in the play as “the lesbian capitol of the north.” At the heart of its operation was protest to Margaret Thatcher’s Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 prohibiting, among other things, “the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.”

Cultural War. Wikipedia observes, “Section 28 was described as one the first pieces of ‘culture war‘ legislation by Wendy Alexander, who was the Scottish Executive Minister for Communities at the time of the repeal of Section 28 in Scotland.” Repeal in Scotland came in 2000; it followed in England and Wales in 2003.

Gwenda’s Brother John. Gwenda had one sibling, John, born four years after her. In time, he became recognized as a “second Lawrence of Arabia.” 

Sir John Bagot Glubb, KCB, CMG, DSO, OBE, MC, KStJ, KPM, 1897–1986, honored as Glubb Pasha for his contributing to Jordan’s Arab Legion. Image by Willem van de Poll, National Archive.

He has appeared essentially thrice here at SimanaitisSays: “Glubb Pasha A Second Lawrence of Arabia,” July 30, 2021; and “Muslim Lore—From Glubb Pasha and the New York Times Style Magazine,” Parts 1 and 2, November 16-17, 2022.

I had the pleasure of meeting Sir John Bagot Glubb when he spoke about Middle Eastern affairs at a Worcester Poly colloquium back in 1961. Alas, at the time I didn’t think to ask him about his sister Gwenda. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026