The Ards TT 'Race to Disaster' and the story of deadly driver Jack Chambers.

Above: a letter from Harry Ferguson from the collection at PRONI.

Last year I was delighted to be co-presenter of a BBC Northern Ireland programme, made by Northern Star Pictures, about the Ulster (Ards Circuit) Tourist Trophy Race which took place close to where I live every year from 1928 - 1936. The race was masterminded by Harry Ferguson and William Wallace McLeod. 

The programme which was entitled "Race to Disaster: The Ards TT" was 'Critics Choice' in the Sunday Times just prior to broadcast on 16 February 2023 - details here on the Northern Ireland Screen website.

It was one of the most famous motor races on the planet, attracting the biggest car brands and the most famous daredevil drivers. But it was ended because of a horrendous incident when a young Belfast driver, Jack Chambers (pictured left in 1935) crashed into a crowd of spectators in Newtownards. Eight people were killed and 40 injured, and Jack Chambers' father, Alderman William John Chambers, took part in the funeral processions through Newtownards. It was reported that even more people came to see the funerals than had watched the world famous races.

Local tradition held that young Chambers was heartbroken by the accident and drank himself to death, dying in ignominy and obscurity.

However, the full story – not included in the tv programme as I only uncovered these details after programme production was finished – is far more reckless and disgraceful. For the next 32 years Chambers was a serial drink driver, defying every licence ban, suspension and fine that the courts handed down to him.


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A branch of the Chambers family were the first motor car manufacturers in Ireland – they produced  Chambers brand cars, made in Cuba Street in Belfast. 

• EARLY YEARS
William John (Jack) Chambers was the namesake, and one of the three sons, of Alderman William John Chambers. The family lived on the Donegall Pass. WJ senior was one of the first motorcyclists in Ulster, having taken the sport up in 1900. He opened a garage and showroom on the Donegall Pass and his two sons inherited his love of speed. WJ was a member of the City Council in 1929 and he and the  family attended Windsor Baptist Church, becoming President of the Baptist Union of Ireland in 1934. By the time of the 1936, the Chambers were influential and famous.

• THE 1925 RACE DEATH
Another of the sons, Herbert Charles Joseph Chambers, was killed in a motorbike race at Portmarnock in October 1925, aged just 24. The crash was witnessed by his father - Herbert had been doing an estimated 80 - 90mph and, with no other rider involved, the bike wobbled and went about 10 feet into the air, somersaulting along the road. Sustaining multiple injuries, he was transported by car to the Mater Hospital in Dublin but died before arriving there.

• THE 1936 RACE DEATHS
It was ten years later, in September 1935, when fellow motorcyclist Jack Chambers made his racing car debut. And one year after that, he was at the wheel when his car left the road in Newtownards, outside today's Strangford Arms Hotel, at around 100mph and ploughed into the unprotected spectators. The newspaper reports spare no details – a gruesome horrific event.

• A RECKLESS LIFE
The local legend of Jack Chambers' alleged remorse and decline are just that - a legend.

• In April 1938 there are newspaper reports of him once again racing motorbikes, almost at the same time that the inquest and civil case by the victims' families began, in July 1938.





• Alderman Chambers died in May 1943, aged 65, and it seems that Jack inherited the showroom and garage business.

• In July 1947 Jack was fined £25 for drunk driving and had his license suspended for two years.

• In December 1953 he had a further 10 year driving ban imposed, and in 1957 (presumably due to having defied previous bans) he was in court in Newry where the magistrate said Chambers had “four previous convictions and suspensions … he hadn’t come up against a record quite as bad as Chambers"


• Unbelievably, in October 1962, Jack Chambers had a “£100 fine and 20 year ban”.

He died in late October, 1968, at 104 Donegall Pass, leaving his wife Patricia but seemingly no children. He was buried at the City Cemetery. Among his obituaries was one from the Belfast & District Motor Club, of which he was Vice-President. 

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Attitudes to drink-driving and road safety in Northern Ireland have changed dramatically over the subsequent years. Much of that has been rightly accredited to the globally recognised award-winning campaigns by McCann-Erickson Belfast, later Lyle Bailie.

• Watch the programme on the BBC iPlayer, here.