Ladies Automobile Club, circa 1904

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

The 2024 London to Brighton Veteran Car Run included a celebration of the 120th anniversary of the founding of the Ladies Automobile Club. A special prize was awarded to Andrea Holden who was driving a 1902 Thomas specially imported from Australia for her to drive. This was indeed something special and we found a good deal of information about the Ladies Automobile Club in the event booklet, which we impart in part below.

The first attempt at forming a Ladies motoring club was made in 1899 by Viscountess Harberton, but the idea really took off four years later mainly due to the endeavors of Lady Cecil Scott-Montagu. It was reported in the Automobile Club Journal that the initial meeting of the Ladies Automobile Club was held in March 1903, hosted by Mrs Beatrice Rawson at her house in London’s Mayfair. Lady Cecil Scott Montagu presided, setting out the goals and benefits of the organization, whose aims were both social and technical. The annual subscription fee was set at 2 guineas and the initial membership of 50 included 23 titled women as motoring was very much a hobby for the moneyed elite.

The first meeting was held at temporary premises in a drawing room at the Hans Crescent Hotel in Knightsbridge London. Members were allowed to garage their automobiles at the nearby Harrods Garage at a rate of 10 shillings a week. In April 1904 the club moved to new premises within Claridges Hotel in Mayfair.

In May 1904 the Duchess of Sutherland accepted the invitation to become President of the Club. The Club’s first outdoor meeting was held on the 15th June 1904 when some 56 vehicles were assembled at the Athenaeum Club Mayfair before proceeding along Pall Mall to Hyde Park, finishing for tea at the Ranelagh Polo Club in Barns Elms. It was said that so striking was the spectacle of so many women driving motorcars that the King and Queen watched them go past from a window in Buckingham Palace. “No unsightly goggles nor hideous masks marred the beauty of London’s fairest daughters: bright dresses and pretty hats were the order of the day,” wrote the Autocar.

Later, members with country estates would host club runs for which they would lay on tea, music, and a tour of the grounds. In October 1904 at Mrs Wilson Noble’s house at Tangley Park in Guildford, it was reported that the hostess had a special road laid around the house to enable the vehicles to drive onto the South Lawn to be photographed. It is also reported at in 1905, on a run to Mrs Gerard Leigh’s country house, that five members were caught by the police in East Grinstead. We are unsure of the charges.

A 1905 column in Autocar describes attending one of the Clubs lectures. “The ladies have really the most dainty headquarters at Claridge’s, with their own entrance and many other conveniences,” he recorded. “After the lecture tea was taken in the Great Hall and automobile conversation was rife the while. I was gratified to hear much technique from feminine lips which goes to show that women, when really interested, is twice as thorough as man.”

By 1909 membership had grown to 450 members. In 1912 the club endowed a hospital bed at the Royal Free Hospital specifically for those injured in accidents caused by motor vehicles, and during the first World War the club funded two vehicles to support the troops at the front, one being a four-stretcher ambulance.

By the 1920s the motor car had become more of a utility than a novelty and the fashion for motoring went into steep decline. The Ladies Automobile Club had become more of a social group for women than one committed to four-wheeled experiences. The Pall Mall Gazette noted on visiting the club’s new premises in South Audley Street in Mayfair that none of the younger enthusiasts who drive so daringly about London were to be seen. The new generation of women had moved on, as driving became commonplace, and cars less of a technical challenge to master. The Ladies Automobile Club was eventually absorbed into the Royal Automobile Club.

Below, a few of the women entrants and or drivers in this year’s London to Brighton Run.