The Automobile Club Feminin

Club members visit an airfield

The Automobile Club de France did not allow female members, so a women’s equivalent was founded in 1926. It was incorporated in 1925 and began its activities early the following year.

Its first president was Anne Rochechouart de Mortemart, the duchess of Uzes. She remained in the post until her death in 1933, when Elaine Greffulhe, the duchess of Gramont, was elected as her successor.

The ACFF’s membership came from the upper classes, with many of the committee members having husbands who sat on the all-male club’s board. A good proportion of the committee was titled and some came from notable families such as the Rothschilds. Giorigina Bingen, wife of Andre Citroen, was among them. Despite its select entry requirements, there were many senior members who were Jewish, such as Bingen, Beatrice Reinach and two Rothschild baronesses.

The founder of the Paris-St. Raphael Rally, Count Edme de Rohan-Chabot, was involved, chiefly as the publisher for the club’s magazine. Many members were regulars in early runnings of the Paris-St. Raphael, although it remained independent of the club itself.

Much of the club’s role was to provide social activities for motor-minded ladies, including tours and meet-ups at members’ (stately) homes. These were recorded in its regular magazine, alongside travel and fashion advice, social gossip, reports from major motorsport events and even poetry.

It did, however, organise its own rallies, including some international ones: the Paris-Rome Rally in 1932 and the Paris-Amsterdam in 1931. In its earliest days, it was responsible for the Paris-La Baule Rally which began in 1925.

A “Winter Sports Rally” ran between Paris and Chamonix in 1935, following a “surprise rally” which ended up in Rambouillet in 1934.

The annual rally in 1936 ran between Paris and Le Touquet and was won by Jacqueline Seligmann. Her car is not recorded. The competitive element this time was a regularity test of some 220km.

Magdeleine, Comtesse de Ganay, was the most successful driver in these rallies. She won the Paris-Cannes event in 1930 and was second in the Paris-Amsterdam Rally the year after, both in a Reinastella. 

From time to time, the Club took itself to the forests for a trial, including one in early 1935 which featured a Chanel dress as a prize, won by Jacqueline Seligmann. There were also “paper chase” and treasure hunt-style rallies in towns.

A few ACFF ladies did go on to have serious and successful motorsport careers, including Marguerite Mareuse, one of the first women to race at Le Mans.

The Second World War curtailed the activities of the club and its magazine ceased publication in 1939.

The Paris-Amsterdam Rally

 

Suzanne de la Meurthe and Madame Marquisan with their Hispano Suiza

1. Suzanne Deutsch de la Meurthe/Madame Marquisan (Hispano Suiza)

2. Comtesse Magdeleine de Ganay/Mademoiselle Gouin (Renault Reinastella)

3. Beatrice Reinach (Ballot)

4. Camilla Steinbrugge (Bugatti)

5. Madame Kaufman (Citroen)

6. Madame Mennesson (Talbot)

7. Comtesse Constance de Lubersac (Citroen)

8. Miss Thurnauer (Bugatti)

9. Madame Friedmann (Rosengart)

10. Madame Schumann (Citroen)

11. Madame Sambon (Voisin)

12. Madame Krebs (Talbot)

13. Claude Dadvisard (Citroen)

14. Mademoiselle Cremieux (Citroen)

15. Comtesse Marie de Jouvencel (Citroen)

16. Madame Calbet (Citroen)

The rally began at the Place de la Concorde in Paris on the 12th of May 1931. The sixteen entrants were waved off by Anne, the Dowager Duchesse d’Uzes and the leader of the Automobile Club Feminin. 

Like the Paris-Rome Rally that followed it, the Paris to Amsterdam event had a strong social element, but was also a serious long-distance trial, passing through northern France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The first leg ran between Paris and Namur in Belgium, where a hillclimb was held, won by Suzanne Deutsch de la Meurthe.

Magdeleine de Ganay won the 20km regularity trial section between Gembloux and Wavre which followed. According to the Excelsior newspaper, her times matched the averages exactly. A points system based on these two events determined the final positions. Further pictures in the Club’s monthly magazine show the two leading passengers, who sat alongside the winners.

The competitive element of the rally was now over and the 16 cars made their way to Amsterdam’s Olympic stadium, via Brussels and Rotterdam. The results were announced at a gala dinner on the 14th, held at the Carlton Hotel in Amsterdam, after a day spent visiting Haarlem. The touring section continued with visits to The Hague, Vollendam and finally Luxembourg, via Arnhem and Utrecht, returning to France on Monday the 18th.

All sixteen cars finished. Many of the drivers remain elusive as to their full identities, although all seem to be members of the Club, wealthy and well-connected and based in France. Magdeleine de Ganay was a regular entrant in the women-only rallies of the time, winning at least one other of the club’s annual long distance rallies, plus the 1930 Paris-St. Raphael. The Comtesse de Lubersac, an American-born Frenchwoman, was seventh in the Paris-Rome Rally held the following year, along with Madame Calbet and Madame Mennesson. Noted art collector and one of the wealthiest women in France, Beatrice Reinach, was another who was a regular in the events held by the club. Camilla Steinbrugge was another socialite who mixed in more bohemian circles, reputedly a lover of the publisher Sylvia Beach.

Winner Suzanne Deutsch de la Meurthe was a committee member of the Automobile Club, but she was better known as a pioneering aircraft pilot.

(Image copyright Agence Rol)