Nancy Spain
| Nancy Spain | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Nancy Brooker Spain 13 September 1917 Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England |
| Died | 21 March 1964 (aged 46) Aintree, Lancashire, England |
| Cause of death | Air crash |
| Resting place | Horsley, Northumberland, England, UK |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Journalist, author and broadcaster |
| Partner(s) | Joan Werner Laurie |
| Parent(s) |
|
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom
|
| Service/branch |
 Royal Navy
|
| Years of service | 1939–1945 |
| Battles/wars | World War 2 |
Nancy Brooker Spain (13 September 1917 – 21 March 1964) was a prominent English broadcaster and journalist. She was a columnist for the Daily Express, She magazine, and the News of the World in the 1950s and 1960s. She also appeared on many radio broadcasts, particularly on Woman's Hour and My Word!, and later as a panelist on the television programmes What's My Line? and Juke Box Jury. Spain died in a plane crash near Aintree racecourse while traveling to the 1964 Grand National.
Spain was born in Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne, the younger of the two daughters of Lieutenant-Colonel George Spain, a freeman of the city and a prominent figure in local military and antiquarian affairs. Her father was a writer himself and appeared in a number of radio plays as well as broadcasting commentaries on Newcastle United games. Her mother, Norah Smiles, was the daughter of Lucy Dorling (a half-sister of Isabella Beeton) and William Holmes Smiles (son of Samuel Smiles).
As a child, Spain remembered pushing the future eminent journalist William Hardcastle into the Bull Park Lake on the Town Moor, where she used to learn to ride at five shillings an hour "with other little bourgeois tots".
Spain went to Roedean School (a family tradition) from 1931 to 1935, where she began wearing "mannish" clothes, and developed the speaking voice which stood her in such good stead in her eventual media career. She played lacrosse for Northumberland and Durham, and hockey for the North of England, as well as playing tennis and cricket. She also acted on BBC radio, where she took over the star parts vacated by Esther McCracken. She was a sports reporter for the Newcastle Journal, and had a love affair with local sportswoman Winifrid Sargeant. During the Second World War, Spain served in the WRNS on Tyneside, a period covered in her book Thank you, Nelson (1945). She served as a driver and was then commissioned, and worked in the WRNS press office in London.
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