Florence Ilott, Westminster Bridge Sprinter, Remembered In Touching Twitter Thread

"I want to tell you about a remarkable woman that you almost certainly haven't heard of."
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Florence Ilott's remarkable 1934 achievement has been memorialised in a heartwarming Twitter thread.
Huntley Archives/YouTube

A man’s memorial to his late grandmother has captured the hearts of thousands.

Author Scott Pack used a series of tweets on Friday to share a story about his nan, Florence Ilott, who enjoyed fleeting fame in the 1930s for a remarkable feat.

The Twitter thread, since shared almost 7,000 times with close to 21,000 ‘likes’ as of Saturday morning, is here in full:

The clip, taken by a news agency which would have sent it to cinema houses across the country as part of a newsreel at the time, has since been digitised by Huntley Archives – ensuring Florence’s achievement can be enjoyed for many years yet.

Pack, meanwhile, has thanked the thousands who have shared his grandmother’s story.

“Thanks everyone for your kind words about my nan,” he wrote. “She would have been very surprised and touched by the reaction to her story. But first I would have had to explain the internet to her.”