Rose Hanks, the first woman to feature on the podium at the TT, died over the past winter following a long battle with illness.

The former Rose Arnold first passengered in her early 20s and in 1966 rode with Freddie Wallis for a season on UK short circuits, but her main ambition was to ride in the TT.

The following year she got her big break when Roy Hanks (later to become her husband) mentioned that his eldest brother Norman was looking for a passenger for the season, including the TT, and she jumped at the chance.

Norman was one of the top sidecar drivers of his time along with the likes of Chris Vincent, but her first attempt at the Mountain Course was not particularly notable as they had a few problems and finished 27th.

It all came good the following year when she and Norman were runners-up to Terry Vinicombe and John Flaxman in the first 750cc class of the Sidecar TT, ran as a two-tier race in that particular year. Peter Brown and D. Bean were third in a BSA 1-2-3.

Commenting on the success some years later, Rose said: ‘It was like a dream come true, I was on cloud nine and can't remember much about it except that at the presentation the other sidecar crews presented me with a bouquet.

‘The same year at the TT I was taken to Hillberry to be presented to Prince Phillip, which was a great honour.’

Vinicombe, who had raced in four previous TTs, never competed in the island again as he died the following year of a thrombosis.

In 1969 Rose and Norman finished seventh in the 500cc GP class behind the factory-backed BMWs of Klaus Enders/Ralf Engelhardt and Siegfried Schauzu/Hans Schneider and the URS of Helmut Fath/Wolfgang Kalauch.

Dane Rowe was one place behind with driver Bill Copson – so an equally rare occurrence to have two women in the top 10.

By 1970 she and Roy had married and they rode together in the 750cc race, but unfortunately the engine blew.

Uniquely, Rose finished 11th in the 500cc race with Norman (won by Enders and Kalauch).

It was Rose’s last TT, although Roy went on to have a distinguished TT career over a period of 50 years, during which he received 47 replicas and won the first race in 1997 with Phillip Biggs. They were fourth in the second race a few days later to take the overall sidecar title.

Rose and Roy’s youngest daughter Julie passengered in 11 sidecar TTs with various drivers between 2002 and 2015, with a best result of 23rd with Matthew Dix in 2010.

Rose did a parade lap with Roy in 1998 on his winning Ireson outfit from the previous year, which was in fact as quick as she had gone 30 years earlier.

The Hanks family have been involved with running the TT Supporters Club for over five decades, while Roy is a leading figure in the ACU Benevolent Fund.