Elsie Mackay

Lady Elsie Mackay (August 21, 1893–13th March 1928) was a British actress, jockey, interior decorator and pioneering aviator who died attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean with Walter G. R. Hinchliffe in a single engined Stinson Detroiter. Her stage name as an actress was Poppy Wyndham. Biography Elsie Mackay was born August 21, 1893, in Simla, West Bengal, India, to James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape of Strathnaver, a British colonial administrator in India who became chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company and Jean Paterson Shanks. Her father was serving as President of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, as a member of the Legislative Council of the Viceroy of India, and as a member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India. She was reportedly disinherited by her family after eloping with actor Dennis Wyndham to be married on 23 May 1917. She appeared on the stage and screen as Poppy Wyndham from 1919 to 1921. This marriage was annulled in 1922. As Poppy Wyndham she was the first woman jockey in England, and in her short career on the turf she piloted no less than a dozen winners under the barriers. In the few events from which her sex did not bar her, her colours - yellow and blue - were always present, and always were heavily backed.