From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
CAMILLE du GAST:
Among the streets of Paris is a street which bears the name Rue Crespin du Gast. In a city that names its streets after its statesmen, soldiers, artists and poets, here is one named after a racing driver - and a female one at that!
Yet Camille du Gast never won a race, so why this singular honour? Could it have been for her role in the tragic Paris- Madrid Race? Or her feat of survival in the Algiers-Toulon motorboat race of 1905? Or even for her work in preventing cruelty to animals or the help she gave to the sick and poor?
In truth, it was for all of these things that Camille du Gast had a Paris street named after her, for hers was truly a remarkable life.
In fact, du Gast was her maiden name which she retained in the various sports at which she excelled. She was Mme Crespin, wife of a senior director of the huge Dufayel store. Her husband - at a time when women's lib was a far-distant notion - provided her with the means to indulge her many interests.
She first captured the public's imagination around 1895 as a balloonist, an interest she shared with her husband. Her sporting interests also embraced fencing, shooting with rifle and pistol and mountaineering. She excelled at all these activities, as well as being an excellent horsewoman.
In 1900 she witnessed the start of the Paris-Lyon road race. Around the same time her husband bought a Peugeot and a Panhard-Levassor which she soon acquired a real skill in handling. At a time when it was socially unacceptable that a woman should replace her chauffeur as the driver, this was just what Camille du Gast did. Not only that but in June 1901 she entered the great Paris- Berlin motor race.
Her entry in this male- dominated sport was nothing short of sensational but the French public took her to their hearts. She drove cautiously and was rewarded with 19th place in the heavy class and 33rd overall out of 47 finishers. Her achievement is stunning when one realises that she was driving a road car while virtually all the other competitors drove specially prepared racing cars.
Her next event was the 1903 Paris-Madrid race. This time she had the benefit of a proper racing car - a 30hp de Dietrich. Out of a field of 275 cars du Gast started 29th. Once again she delighted the French public, although The Autocar remarked: "The gallant Frenchmen applauded and raised their hats, but for ourselves we must confess to a feeling of doubt as to whether fierce long-distance racing is quite the thing for ladies."
Notwithstanding such doubts, in the first 120 kms she had made up nine places. Outside Libourne she had climbed to 8th place when she came upon the crashed de Dietrich of Phil Stead. She stopped and tended the seriously injured Englishman and, despite his urgings to continue, she stayed with him until medical help arrived. She then continued, finishing 45th overall at the finish of the shortened race.
By then it was becoming clear to all those who had took part that the race had become a tragedy which signalled the end of the great city-to-city races.
Camille du Gast turned her attention to motorboat racing. She was famously lucky to survive the 1905 motorboat race across the Mediterranean when the field was decimated by a violent storm. She was declared the winner as the contestant who had come closest to reaching the finish at Toulon. In later life she became president of the French Anti-Cruelty to Animals Society as well and worked for the relief of the poor.
The remarkable Camille du Gast died, aged 72, in April 1942.