WHEN LADIES TOOK THE WHEEL
Lady Cecil Scott-Montagu .
Sarah Wyatt of the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu recalls the first club exclusively for women motorists , which thrived for almost 20 years fuelled by intrepidity , tea , tours , and a talk by one Charles Rolls .
At the turn of the last century , some of Britain ’ s prominent women in high society with a keen interest in motoring began to feel that they needed a club of their own . The existing automobile clubs did not admit women and so , rather than be excluded from the camaraderie essential to early drivers , they decided to start their own , which , of course , would exclude men .
The first attempt to form a women ’ s motoring club was made in 1899 by Viscountess Harberton , although there proved to be not quite enough traction for it at that time . But the idea was to blossom four years later in the hands of Lady Cecil Scott-Montagu , as greater numbers of women had now become fixated with taking the wheel .
The Automobile Club Journal reported an initial meeting of the Ladies ’ Automobile Club that was held in March 1903 . Mrs Beatrice Rawson hosted the meeting in her house in Mayfair . Lady Cecil Scott-Montagu presided over matters , setting out the objects and benefits of the organisation . At this stage she had already secured the support of the Automobile Club ( later the Royal Automobile Club ), which provided a financial guarantee to enable the LAC to organise more quickly .
The Club ’ s aims were both social and technical .
16 The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run