Jimmie Guthrie
| Jimmie Guthrie | |||||||||||||||
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| Nationality | British | ||||||||||||||
| Born |
23 May 1897 Hawick, Scotland |
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| Died | 8 August 1937 (aged 40) Sachsenring road racing course, near Hohenstein-Ernstthal village, Germany |
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Andrew James "Jimmie" Guthrie (23 May 1897 Hawick, UK– 8 August 1937) was a Scottish motorcycle racer famous for 19 motorcycle Grand Prix wins, 3 victories in the North West 200 and 6 wins at the Isle of Man TT races. He died in 1937 when motorcycle racing in Germany.
After a period as an apprentice engineer, Guthrie joined the local regiment, the 4th (The Border) Battalion King's Own Scottish Borderers. The 4th Bn Kings Own Scottish Borders were part of the 52nd (Lowland) Division and while moving from Scotland to Gallipoli were involved in the Quintinshill rail crash near Gretna Green with the 1/7th Bn Royal Scots which resulted in the death of 210 officers and men from the 52nd Division. While serving with the 4th Bn Kings Own Scottish Borderers, Guthrie saw service at Gallipoli and in Palestine. The 52nd (Lowland Division) also served in France in 1918 during the Second Battles of the Somme and Arras. During this time on the Western Front in France, Guthrie served as motorcycle dispatch rider.
After war service and returning to his native Hawick, Guthrie and his brother Archie joined the local Hawick Motor-Cycle Club. After participating in many local hill-climb and grass-track races, the Hawick MCC nominated Guthrie to race at the Isle of Man TT races for the 1923 season. Although Guthrie did not return to the Isle of Man TT Races until 1927, he competed at the Scottish Speed Championships at St Andrews and won the 1926 and 1927 championships.
During the 1937 Isle of Man TT races he won the Junior TT but retired on lap 5 of the 1937 Senior TT race at The Cutting on the A18 Mountain Road section of the course. After his death in 1937 when competing in the 1937 German Grand Prix, a memorial funded by public subscriptions was erected on the TT course in 1939, at the place where he retired in his last race, previously known as The Cutting, called Guthrie's Memorial (Ordnance Survey Map SC 435 935 GB Grid) ever since. The inscription on the memorial reads as follows:
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