 | |
| Merged into | with Royal Automobile Club |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1903 |
| Founder | Lady Cecil Scott Montagu |
| Type | Car club |
| Headquarters | Picadilly then Claridges |
The Ladies' Automobile Club was formed by a group of aristocratic women in 1903. The club continued until the 1920s when it was absorbed by the Royal Automobile Club.
In October 1899 Florence Wallace Pomeroy, Viscountess Harberton, who was a campaigner for women's dress reform, [1] [2] hosted the first attempt to set up a Ladies Automobile Club, at her London home. [3] She invited Louise Bazalgette, who was an enthusiast for driving who boasted of travelling over 2,000 miles. One of Bazelgette's trips was from London to Southampton and this was a record for a woman. [4] Pomeroy's proposal did not gather sufficient support and a Ladies Automobile Club was not established until 1903 [5] (and Bazalgette was not involved). [4]
Lady Cecil Scott Montagu formed the club in 1903. Nearly half of the fifty members who the first to pay the two guineas annual membership fee were women with titles. [6] Lady Millicent Sutherland was the inaugural President and Ada Annie Watney [7] and [8] Edith Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry were founders and members of the first committee of the Ladies Automobile Club [9] with the American Kate d'Esterre-Hughes as secretary. [10]
The club was required because the Automobile Club that was based in London would only allow men to join. The discrimination was needed (said the club) because of the large number of women who wanted to join and because the existing members needed to smoke everywhere in the club's building. [11]
The new club for ladies was based at a hotel in Piccadilly but it moved after six months to Claridge's where the club was given its own entrance. [6] In 1904 the club became a limited company and it had 300 members and an affiliation agreed with the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland. On 9 June the club held its first run with over 50 vehicles taking part in a short run from the Athenaeum Club through London to the Ranelagh Club for afternoon tea. [10] [12]
An early member, Victoria Woodhull, was said to be the first woman car driver in London's Hyde Park. [13]
The balloonist May Assheton Harbord was a member of the Ladies Automobile Club from about 1909. [14]
The club organised trips and games using the cars. Talks were arranged with guests inculing the founder's husband, Lord Montenu, Charles Rolls and Filson Young. In 1912 the club took the unusual step of funding a hospital bed that was reserved for people injured by cars. They encouraged the Royal Automobile Club and the later formed Automobile Association to follow their lead. After the war broke out, they funded an ambulance that was specically built for them by coachbuilders. [6]
The club continued until the 1920s when it was absorbed by the Royal Automobile Club. [6]
In 2024 the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run celebrated 120 years since the ("circa 1904") formation of the Ladies' Automobile Club. [15]
The Arnold was one of the first motor cars manufactured in the United Kingdom. It was produced in East Peckham, Kent between 1896 and 1898.
Cycling UK is a trading name of the Cyclists' Touring Club (CTC), which is a charitable membership organisation supporting cyclists and promoting bicycle use. Cycling UK is registered at Companies House as "Cyclists’ Touring Club", and is covered by company law. It works at a national and local level to lobby for cyclists' needs and wants, provides services to members, and organises local groups for local activism and those interested in recreational cycling. The original Cyclists' Touring Club began in the nineteenth century with a focus on amateur road cycling but these days has a much broader sphere of interest encompassing everyday transport, commuting and many forms of recreational cycling. Prior to April 2016, the organisation operated under the brand "CTC, the national cycling charity". As of February 2020, the organisation's president is the newsreader Jon Snow.
Edward John Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley,, known as The Lord Eddisbury between 1848 and 1850, was a British politician. He served as Postmaster General between 1860 and 1866.
Selwyn Francis Edge (1868–1940) was a British businessman, racing driver, cyclist and record-breaker. He is principally associated with selling and racing De Dion-Bouton, Gladiator; Clemént-Panhard, Napier and AC cars.
Edith Helen Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry, DBE was a noted and influential society hostess in the United Kingdom between World War I and World War II, a friend of the first Labour prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald. She was a noted gardener and a writer and editor of the works of others.
The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run is the world's longest-running motoring event, held on a course between London and Brighton, England. To qualify, participating cars must have been built before 1905. It is also the world's largest gathering of veteran cars. The first edition, "The Emancipation Run" in 1896, celebrated the recently passed Locomotives on Highways Act 1896, which liberalised motor vehicle laws in the United Kingdom.
The Rational Dress Society was an organisation founded in 1881 in London, part of the movement for Victorian dress reform. It described its purpose thus:
The Rational Dress Society protests against the introduction of any fashion in dress that either deforms the figure, impedes the movements of the body, or in any way tends to injure the health. It protests against the wearing of tightly-fitting corsets; of high-heeled shoes; of heavily-weighted skirts, as rendering healthy exercise almost impossible; and of all tie down cloaks or other garments impeding on the movements of the arms. It protests against crinolines or crinolettes of any kind as ugly and deforming... [It] requires all to be dressed healthily, comfortably, and beautifully, to seek what conduces to birth, comfort and beauty in our dress as a duty to ourselves and each other.
Dorothy Elizabeth Levitt was a British racing driver and journalist. She was the first British woman racing driver, holder of the world's first water speed record, the women's world land speed record holder, and an author. She was a pioneer of female independence and female motoring and taught Queen Alexandra and the Royal Princesses how to drive. In 1905, she established the record for the longest drive achieved by a lady driver by driving a De Dion-Bouton from London to Liverpool and back over two days, receiving the soubriquets in the press of the Fastest Girl on Earth, and the Champion Lady Motorist of the World.
Henry John Lawson, also known as Harry Lawson, was a British bicycle designer, racing cyclist, motor industry pioneer, and fraudster. As part of his attempt to create and control a British motor industry Lawson formed and co floated The Daimler Motor Company Limited in London in 1896. It later began manufacture in Coventry. Lawson organised the 1896 Emancipation Day drive now commemorated annually by the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run on the same course.
Events from the year 1896 in the United Kingdom.
John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, was a British Conservative politician, soldier and promoter of motoring. He was the father of Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu who would go on to found the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu in Montagu's memory.
The Veteran Car Club of Great Britain is a private members' club formed to encourage the preservation and use of veteran and Brass or Edwardian vehicles, whose activities include the promotion and organisation of events and rallies, dating and identification of motor vehicles and acquisition and maintenance of a library and archive connected with early motoring.
Millicent Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland RRC was a Scottish society hostess, social reformer, author, editor, journalist, and playwright, often using the pen name Erskine Gower. Her first husband was Cromartie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 4th Duke of Sutherland. By her two later marriages, she was known as Lady Millicent Fitzgerald and Lady Millicent Hawes, the latter of which was the name she used at the time of her death.
Muriel Thompson was a decorated Scottish World War I ambulance driver, racing driver and suffragist.
The Woman and the Car: A Chatty Little Handbook for all Women Who Motor or Who Want to Motor is a book by Dorothy Levitt, first published in 1909.
Florence Wallace Pomeroy, Viscountess Harberton was a British campaigner for dress reform.
Cleone Benest, also known by the pseudonym C. Griff, was a pioneering motorist, as well as an engineer, and metallurgist. She was one of the first women engineers to pass mechanical examinations of the City and Guilds of London Institute, Royal Automobile Club, and Portsmouth Municipal College. She published articles on engineering and established her own firm which was both managed and run by women. She served as the chair of the Women's Engineering Society from 1922 to 1926.
Gabrielle Borthwick was a pioneering motorist and mechanic. She was one of the early wealthy women motorists to set up a garage and a school for teaching men and women to drive cars. She was chairman of the executive committee for the Women’s Automobile and Sports Association which was associated with the Royal Automobile Club.
Claude Watney was a British brewery director and motor dealer.
Louise Bazalgette born Louise Seville was an early British motorist. She was present at the Emancipation Run in 1896 when car owners celebrated being able to exceed 4 mph. She was widely reported as a woman who was making long trips in a car. She was the only woman to enter the three week long Thousand Mile Trial in 1900.