A hundred Rolls-Royce cars formed a procession through London to mark the centenary of the Spirit of Ecstasy or Flying Lady, which graces the bonnet of every Rolls-Royce model.
The figurine of a woman leaning forwards with her arms outstretched behind her and cloth billowing from them resembling wings, was created by sculptor Charles Sykes in 1911.
Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, an Conservative MP and early motoring enthusiast, commissioned Sykes to create a personal mascot for the bonnet of his Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost modelled on his mistress Eleanor Thornton.
Eleanor, who was Lord Montagu's secretary and secret lover for more than a decade, drowned with hundreds of other passengers on 30 December 1915 when the SS Persia, which she was travelling with Lord Montagu to India, was torpedoed off Crete by a German submarine, four years after Spirit of Ecstasy had been created.
Lord Montagu survived the sinking, dying in March 1929, aged 62.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/8307049/Rolls-Royces-Flying-Lady-mascot-turns-100.html
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