Audrey Victoria Sewell
Audrey’s early life was both exciting and tragic, having married one of the top motorcycle racers in Northern Ireland, lost twins in a miscarriage, and lost her husband in a racing accident. Audrey was born on May 30 1903 in Colchester, Essex, to parents William Alderton Sewell and Harriet Hill. Her father was a career military man, so the family moved frequently. Audrey’s sister Doris and brother Horace were both born in Canterbury in 1898 and 1899, respectively, and her sister Freda was born in 1909 in York. By 1911 the family had moved to Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was there that she met and married her husband Herbert Chambers on 10 January 1924 in Belfast Cathedral.
Audrey became pregnant with twins but, sadly, had a miscarriage in the summer of 1924. Then, in 1925, she gave birth to their son William (Billy) but, soon after, her husband “Herbie”, as he was affectionately known, was killed in a motorcycle accident while competing in Portmarnock, Dublin County, Ireland on October 2, 1925. Herbie was so popular that “Thousands of people assembled in Donegall Pass and Shaftsbury Square, and in the cortege, which was about half a mile long, there were nearly one hundred motor cars”.
It soon became apparent to Audrey that raising Billy as a single mother in Belfast was going to be very difficult for her. However, Herbie’s parents, William John and Isabella Deans (Jameson) Chambers, wanted to bring him up as one of their family and they offered to pay for Audrey to emigrate to Canada to start a new life, in exchange for which, she would leave Billy with them. Audrey reluctantly agreed and sailed to Montreal in late July 1927 on the Montclare. Fortunately, it was on this voyage that she met her future husband Frederick Orton, and they were married in Toronto on 22 September 1928. Her new life had begun.