LOVER OF ADVENTURE
SIR C. CHAMPION DE CRESPIGNY It is probably true to say that no more adventurous spirit ever lived than Sir Claude Champion de* Crespigny, whose strenuous life recently ended at the age of 88. A gay, incurable romanticist, he indulged in the most daring feats states the London “Daily Telegraph”). Afraid of nothing, he had. many or the narrowest possible escapes from death as a soldier, sailor, big game hunter, swimmer, steeplechase rider and balloonist. , With it all was a sense of old-world chivalry that had descended to him from ancestors who were Crusaders. To him there was no better method of settling an affair of honour than the duel. ' Here are some incidents in his vividly picturesque career: He crossed, the North Sea in a balloon half a century ago, after an unsuccessful attempt in which his legs were broken.
When hejvas 78 he dived into the water from a height of 35ft on the shoulders of another swimmer. In India, caught in the coils of a big snake, he hacked himself clear with a ramrod and eventually killed the snake with it. Charged by a rhinoceros, he escaped by firing into the neck of the beast, when it was only two paces away.
He swam the first cataract of the Nile, a feat no European had attempted, and returned safely from what watchers thought would be a fatal escapade. He dived into a shark-infested sea and saved a man from drowning. At (>7 he wanted the War Office to let him fight in any capacity in France.
When nearly 70 he rode the last of a great many races. He crossed the Channel with his son in an open boat although half a gale was blowing. During the Franco-Prussian War he serve'd with the Germans before Paris.
In Spain he did his utmost to securd permission to enter the bull ring as a picador. Every night ho drank a pint of port.
Once, in 1885, he was accused of having acted as assistant executioner when three men were hanged for the murder of a policeman. Actually he was High Sheriff of his country. Essex, and he felt he ought to be with Berry, the hangman on the scaffold, to see that there was no hitch. BELIEF LN THE DUET Sir Claude was a firm believer in tho duel. Annoyed by a speech the late Lord Rayleigh made during tho South African war, Sir Claude went to him. "I have seen your lordship in levee dress,” he gaid, "wearing a rapier. Gentlemen who carry sidearms must be prepared to defend themselves.” Within a few hours Sir Claude pre-1 seated himself at Ixird Rayleigh’s house with seconds, swords and pistols!
At the age of 74 he issued a challenge to a relative, tho late Lord Kenyon, but the reply was in the negative. "At one time or another," remarked Lord Kenyon, "Sir Claude has challenged the whole country." Tho challenger had insisted that until there was some Court of Hon-j our there could never be any substi-l lute for the duel. "I claim the privilege,” he asserted, "which every gentleman is entitled to claim, and' a hundred years ago I should never have had long to wait." Sir Claude's challenges, however, could take other forms. He wanted
.Mr. John Burns on one occasion to meet him in the ring at the National Sporting Club when they were both in dm 'sixties At, the age of 74 he challenged a physician of the same age to walk from London to Brighton, then swim
and scull between the two piers, and finally to box three two-minute rounds.
INNUMERABLE INJURIES
Sir Claude's personal injuries during his career were numerous. Mere concussions went for nothing; but the record —probably incomplete—of bioken. bones included two legs fractured while ballooning, three arms smashed while hunting, three ribs cracked in steeplechasing, one rib broken in a cab accident, a finger broken by a horse, and two lingers
broken by himself —on a man. .Justifying his dare-devilry, he once said that, some people might think his life had been chiefly mis-spent, but he could not altogether agree. "This is an age which is rather devoted to the carking cares, the ceaseless anxieties, and the restlessness of business, than to exploit and adventure: and in the work of ‘getting and I J spending,’ in the piling up—as well as in the losing—of fortunes, the powers and thoughts of very many of us are centred. Such things, indeed, must be: a drone myself, so far as the strictly work-a-day and commercial side of life is concerned. I fully recognise this. It would not do for us to bo steeplechasers and balloonists all. Yet there arc many who share with me the belief in sport, in its even more robust and adventuresome side, as necessary to the devol-1 opment and prowess of the rising gon-| elation of Englishmen." I Tho de Crespigny family is of old | Norman origin: but the founder of' the English line was Claude Champion de Crespigny, a Hugenot officer of tho French army, who came to England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and obtained a commission here.
Hu .settled .it Camberwell, where the family has given it.-» mime to Champion Hill and Do Crespigny Park. Sir Claude was tile fourth holder of the baronetcy, succeeding his father. Sir Claude William. in 1868.
Sir Claude married in IS'.J G< or iriamt second daughter of tim late Mr Robert McKerrel. She died lust February.
Tic* heir to ’he baronetcy is Brig
1 Gen. Claude Raul Champion de Cres2 pigny, born in 1878, and formerly commanding the Ist Guards' Brigade. His other son, Cmdr. Claude Phillip Champion de Crespigny, born in 1880, served in the late war in command of • a monitor. There are also four daughj ters. ; Sir Claude was the author of three ’ capital volumes of reminiscences. In - 1896 her published “Sporting Memoirs ; of Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny” and in 1910 “Forty Years of a Sportsi man's Life." In 1925 he re-issued the last-named volume under the same title, but in much altered and amplified form. AND HIS HAT AND COAT.” Although he was extremely popular, Sir Claude do Crespigny could on occasions . display a disconcerting intolerance. He always observed with great punctilio the older ritual connected with the drinking of port. He expected those at his table to show becoming reverence to its ((Util-
ity and age, and had no liking for the modern and, in his eyes, degenerate habit, of hurrying from the dining t able. There is a story that soon after the war one of his younger guests, while the port was still going round, innocently asked his host if he could smoke. Sir Claude gasped. "Certainly.” lie -aid. ”()f course you can smoke." Then (turning to the hiiller), he added, "John, bring Mr. a cigarette and his hat and coat!”
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Greymouth Evening Star, 9 August 1935, Page 4
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1,154LOVER OF ADVENTURE Greymouth Evening Star, 9 August 1935, Page 4
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