Ernest Archdeacon was a lawyer who never had to plead: the family fortune left him free to pay for other men's inventions — the first motor cars, then the first aeroplanes. He offered fifty thousand francs to the first pilot who could fly a kilometre and return to his starting point; the prize was won on 13 January 1908. Yet he held the Wright brothers, those Americans who had flown before anyone else, to be bluffers.
The story
Born on 28 March 1863 into a well-off family of Irish descent settled in France, Ernest Archdeacon trained as a lawyer and never once needed to plead a case: the family fortune left him all the leisure he wanted to follow machines.
The motor car first. He funded Léon Serpollet's trials with his steam cars, and took a seat aboard for the first Paris-Lyon run ever made by motor car, in 1890 — at a time when engineering proved itself by driving.
Then aviation. In 1898, with Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe, he founded the Aéro-Club de France, of which he was vice-president, and endowed with him a grand prize promised to the first airman to fly a kilometre in a closed circuit.
He ordered gliders from the Voisin brothers and had them towed along the Seine, backed Henry Farman, and saw his prize — fifty thousand francs — won on 13 January 1908. He had paid out of his own pocket for part of the beginnings of French aviation.
He died at Versailles on 3 January 1950, aged eighty-six, having seen the aeroplane become an industry. He lies in Division 3, avenue Thirion, first line, in a grave that carries the names of two families.
The grave
The grave does not draw attention: it bears the inscription “Famille GAILLARD ARCHDEACON”, after two allied families, and nothing of the patronage that brought its occupant into the history of technology. No propeller, no wheel, no date of a flight: the man who financed the first kilometres on a closed circuit rests beneath an ordinary family stone, on avenue Thirion, in Division 3.
On site, do not miss
Look for “Famille GAILLARD ARCHDEACON”: it is under this double name that the man who paid for the first French flights rests. Division 3 is two minutes from the boulevard de Ménilmontant entrance.
Visitors' questions
Where is Ernest Archdeacon's grave?
In Division 3, avenue Thirion, first row, near the main entrance. Raymond Vanier, a pioneer of the Latécoère airmail lines, rests in the same Division: two men of the air a few dozen metres apart.
Raymond VanierWhat did Ernest Archdeacon do for the motor car?
He paid for it. In 1890 he funded the trials of Léon Serpollet's steam cars and rode aboard for the first Paris to Lyons ever driven by motor car, then laid on one competition after another, forcing manufacturers to prove their machines on the road.
Armand PeugeotWhat part did Ernest Archdeacon play in aviation?
That of the backer. He commissioned the Voisin brothers to build gliders towed along the Seine, supported Henry Farman, and, with Deutsch de la Meurthe, endowed the prize for the first kilometre flown in a closed circuit, won on 13 January 1908.
Léon and Robert MoraneWhat is written on Ernest Archdeacon's grave?
“Famille GAILLARD ARCHDEACON”: the grave belongs to two families joined by marriage, and the patron's name is given no prominence. Nothing there recalls the motor cars or the aeroplanes he financed, nor the prize of 1908 he had endowed.
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