Jack Stewarts early life was unremarkable. He grew up in Dilwyn and newspaper articles at the time record him joining in with all the usual village life and events. In 1933 he married Constance Davies and they spent their honeymoon on a motoring holiday in the south west.

The motoring holiday is significant as it’s clear that cars were Jacks main interest. However he had a rather cavalier attitude towards motoring laws and this did not always serve him well. The year after his marriage he was summoned for dangerous driving in Etnam Street, and this seemed to set a pattern of challenging authority which went on for the rest of his life. In all he clocked up nearly 70 motoring convictions for every type of offence from driving without a licence, dangerous driving, defective tyres to causing an obstruction.

In 1942 Stewart faced a much more serious charge when he was committed for trial in Birmingham with two other men on a charge of kidnapping and threatening a rival motor dealer. In the end they were discharged on the direction of the judge due to lack of evidence. In 1947 he was in court again when he was charged with dealing in stolen vehicles. This time he was found guilty and sentenced to 18 months.

The family moved to Eaton Hill, Leominster, and Stewart based many of his new businesses there. Constance died there in 1951 after a short illness.

By 1954 Stewart was gaining notoriety as a stock car racer. This was described as a sport:

“with no hard and fast rules… Apart from the fact that the drivers have to wear crash helmets and have to be strapped in. anything goes. On the loose shingle track, battered but pugnacious cars of all shapes and sizes, all bedaubed liberally with slogans and semi-artistic designs, set out to complete a number of laps of the circular track. Few of them finished.”

A newspaper report described Stewart’s prowess:

“Most adept, most accomplished in the art of tipping over his opponents is the Leominster driver. His policy is—if you can’t beat them for speed then get rid of them. It is a policy which has brought him many successes and earned him the applause of the fans and a certain amount of unpopularity among the other drivers… Jack makes the race in which he takes part. Many another driver has thought himself sitting pretty with a good lead and then suddenly found his car revolving over and over on the track and seen the wicked looking boar’s head attached to the back of Jack’s car hurtled triumphantly round the track.”

At the time the sport was hugely popular and 50,000 spectators would attend meetings to cheer on their favourite. In 1955 Stewart was voted Herefordshire Sportsman of the Year.

Stewart re-married and in semi-retirement became landlord of his wife’s pub, the Birdcage (formerly the Brickmakers Arms) in Barons Cross, where coachloads of his fans would travel to meet him.

When he died in 1966 hundreds of people attended his funeral.

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