Adolphe Clément-Bayard

Who was Adolphe Clément-Bayard?

Gustave Adolphe Clément-Bayard was a French entrepreneur. An orphan who became a blacksmith and a Compagnon du Tour de France, he went on to race and manufacture bicycles, pneumatic tyres, motorcycles, automobiles, aeroplanes and airships.

In 1894 he was a passenger in the winning vehicle in the world's first competitive motor event. Albert Lemaître's Peugot was judged to be the winner of the Paris–Rouen Competition for Horeseless Carriages.

As a result of selling the manufacturing rights to the "Clément" car, he changed his name to Clément-Bayard five years after the successful launch of the Clément-Bayard automobile brand. It honoured the Chevalier Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard who saved the town of Mézières from an Imperial army during the Siege of Mézières in 1521.

Clément-Bayard was appointed a Commander of the Légion d'honneur in 1912.

Most of his manufacturing empire was destroyed by World War 1, by German ransacking, by conversion to war production for France, and by the subsequent weak economic market. In 1922 the Clément-Bayard company was sold to André Citroën and the factory at Levallois-Perret was the centre of 2CV manufacturing for the next 40 years.