Helen Stewart Handwritten Letter, July 1962, 1 month before Marriage to Jackie Stewart

An exceptionally rare handwritten letter from Helen McGregor, later Lady Helen Stewart, sent to respected motoring journalist Eric Dymock from her place of birth in Helensburgh on 27 July 1962.

Written only one month before her marriage to Jackie Stewart, the letter captures a deeply personal moment at the beginning of one of motor racing’s most celebrated partnerships. Helen thanks Eric on behalf of herself and Jackie for a “beautiful gift”, explaining that it would be used many times in their new home. She also expresses her hope that Eric will be able to attend their forthcoming wedding, before wishing him every success with his new venture.

The letter is particularly significant because it was written while she was still Helen McGregor, before her marriage and before Jackie Stewart’s rise to international fame as a three-time Formula One World Champion. Surviving correspondence from this formative period is exceptionally scarce, making this an intimate and historically important artefact connected to the earliest years of the Stewart story.

Helen would subsequently become an iconic presence in the Formula One pit lane and an indispensable part of Jackie’s racing career. In the era before sophisticated telemetry and computerised timing, she stood trackside with a stopwatch and lap charts, recording Jackie’s lap times with extraordinary accuracy and supplying information that was vital to his performance. Race Against Dementia describes Helen as the “stopwatch of Jackie’s life”, reflecting the important role she played throughout his career.

More than a personal thank-you letter, this remarkable piece documents the final weeks before Helen and Jackie’s marriage and the beginning of a lifelong partnership that would become woven into the history of Formula One.

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