Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny, 4th Baronet
It is inconceivable that the life story of Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny (1847-1935) has not been made into a film. A soldier, adventurer, and sportsman, Claude lived his life at an unrelenting pace right up until his death. ‘Where there is a daring deed to be done in any part of the world, an Englishman should leap to the front to accomplish it’, he thundered with patriotic fervor in his memoirs. His vigor and bravery were not always welcome, however, and he missed out on a spot on the Livingstone expedition to Africa, and volunteered unsuccessfully for several wars.
After the Livingstone disappointment, he made his own way to Egypt to fight against a Dervish uprising, but was refused permission to go to the frontline of fighting despite claiming to be a reporter for the Sporting Times. At times, he did manage to get involved in fighting, such as the time when, in 1905 (at the tender age of 58), he went big game hunting in East Africa, and ‘had the luck to arrive just in time to join the Sotik punitive expedition, so that I was able to combine a certain amount of fighting with some excellent sport’.
It is as a sportsman that Claude was most remarkable, however. In 1882 he decided to take up ballooning. On his maiden flight, he decided to become the first man to cross the English Channel in a hot air balloon, but broke his leg when the basket collided with a wall on take-off, adding to his tally of 14 broken bones. Undeterred, a year later he became the first man to cross the North Sea in a balloon. Aged 42, he was the first European to swim the Nile rapids, and walked 45 miles for a miniscule bet aged 61.
Claude was also known to be a keen boxer. He maintained that fighting was a manly activity and a strong indicator of character. Indeed, when it came to hiring male servants, Claude would make them fight a few rounds of boxing with him. It mattered not whether they won or lost, Claude merely wanted to see ‘sufficient spirit’. He also offered homeless people the opportunity to box him for a hot meal. His other noted hobby was somewhat less savory, though equally eccentric. For fun, Claude worked incognito as a volunteer hangman at Carlisle Castle, using the pseudonym ‘Charles Maldon’.