Helen Monica Mabel Vernet (1875–1956) was the first[1] woman in the history of horse racing in Great Britain to be granted a license to legally carry out business as a bookmaker on a racecourse.
She was duly "warned off",[5] the procedure whereby a person of proven dubious character is banned from attending official racecourse meetings in Britain for a set period of time.
It was thought that because of Vernet's family social connections, she would be well placed to discreetly attract upper-crust female racegoers and then, by association, their equally well-heeled partners.
[7] During the First World War racing became less busy and in November 1914 Vernet became involved in the newly formed Volunteer Motor Mobilization Corporation (VMMC), organising motorcades to take wounded soldiers to convalescent hospitals or to the countryside.
Their clients were mainly members of the aristocracy and without calling the odds, Ladbrokes representatives like Mrs Verney, a grey-haired dignified woman who looked about seventy if she was a day, were merely there to accept bets for very large amounts, without any fuss.
Under the guidance and tutelage of her mentor, Arthur Bendir, Vernet was made a partner in the firm in 1928 and was paid a reputed £20,000 per year in salary and commission as Ladbrokes' on-course rails representative.
While never one to hoard money, she enjoyed an elegant and comfortable lifestyle that afforded Vernet the opportunity to eventually settle at 49 Eaton Place in London's Belgravia, and holiday regularly on the French Riviera where she liked to gamble at the casino tables.
But nevertheless, she insisted on working almost until her death in 1956 at the age of 80, even to the extent of attending race meetings in a wheelchair pushed by her assistant, Alf Simmons, due to the crippling effects of arthritis.