A MOTOR-RACING pioneer has been commemorated with a blue plaque at his former home in Marylebone.

Sir Henry Segrave, who held the world land and water speed record, lived at Number 6, St Andrew's Mansions, in Dorset Street, from 1917 to 1920.

While living at the address, Sir Henry started motor-racing, with his first outing at Brooklands in the spring of 1919.

Born in Baltimore, USA, Sir Henry went to school in England before spending a brief time at Sandhurst.

He saw action in France during the First World War, and achieved the rank of major, but was twice shot down and wounded.

He later said: "I was a rotten pilot. "I always seemed to make a mess of landing."

He developed an interest in cars and motorcycles soon after being demobbed.

He won the French Grand Prix in 1923, becoming the first Briton to win a major international motor race for 21 years.

In 1926, he reached a speed of 152.33mph in his car which, over a kilometre, broke the existing land speed record. Despite this success, Sir Henry retired from Grand Prix racing in 1927, yet continued to make world record attempts.

That year he smashed the 200mph mark, and two years later, attained yet another land speed record of 231.36mph. Sir Henry was knighted in 1929. He then began racing boats and in 1930 broke the water speed record by reaching 98.76mph, beating the previous best by 6mph.

Disaster struck on a further run when his boat capsized after hitting a floating object.

He suffered a punctured lung and died shortly afterwards, aged 33.