11 replies to this topic

[Doug Nye]

Can anyone guide me towards any biographical details - more than internet DoB/DoD - for French driver Pierre Leygonie?  He raced briefly pre-war, was a friend of Wimille's, and co-drove postwar with Porfirio Rubirosa and Lance Macklin.  He was plainly quite a man about town within Parisian/Riviera society but can anyone paint in more comprehensive detail of the man, his circumstances, and life?

 

DCN

[Vitesse2]

I've seen him credited as co-designer of the proposed Wimille electric car project during the occupation of France, which evolved into the conventionally powered road car that went through several prototype iterations from 1946 onwards. He was apparently Wimille's personal manager and also the Bugatti team's pit manager at some point. I also have a note that he sheltered Wimille's wife Christiane after she narrowly escaped deportation to Germany in 1944.

 

If anyone has a copy of Les Véhicules de l'Occupation by Jacques Borgé & Nicolas Viasnoff (Balland 1975) he gets at least a couple of mentions, according to some snippet views on Gallica.

 

A Pierre Leygonie of 43 boulevard Inkermann, Neuilly-sur-Seine, offered an 'impeccable' Voisin 14HP for sale in L'Auto, 1 July 1931, p4 - he's presumably our man?

 

This is probably a red herring, but it's possible that he was originally from Algeria - a search of Gallica brings up a Pierre Leygonie (and a M & Mme Jean Leygonie) among a long list of people offering condolences on a death in 1927 - La Dépêche algérienne 17 March 1927, p3 - and in another publication (L'Hippique algérienne et tunisienne) there are references to a 'gentleman Pierre Leygonie'; a 1918 issue of La Dépêche algérienne has a small ad from a Pierre Leygonie of Villa Bagatelle, Kouba, who is selling a horse and appears to be the same man. Kouba is a suburb of Algiers. However, he also seems to have later been a dog breeder, so possibly not the same Pierre Leygonie.

 

ETA: looks like it was a red herring!

[Kilted Wanderer]

Ancestry has a number of documents that are possibly your man, and his wife.

 

Travelling to Peru from New York in 4/8/1948 with his wife "Margarita", who is listed as Peruvian, and the surname "De Leygonie". Address is 12 Rue Murillo, Paris.

 

They fly from Paris to New York on 8th August.

 

The couple also arrive in Boston, flying from France on New Years Day 1948.

 

He travels in 1937 on his own from Le Havre to New York aboard the "SS Lafayette". Occupation listed as "Agent".

[Vitesse2]

Ancestry has a number of documents that are possibly your man, and his wife.

 

Travelling to Peru from New York in 4/8/1948 with his wife "Margarita", who is listed as Peruvian, and the surname "De Leygonie". Address is 12 Rue Murillo, Paris.

 

They fly from Paris to New York on 8th August.

 

The couple also arrive in Boston, flying from France on New Years Day 1948.

 

He travels in 1937 on his own from Le Havre to New York aboard the "SS Lafayette". Occupation listed as "Agent".

Looks like that makes him the Pierre Henri Raoul Leygonie who was born October 18th 1908 and died October 22nd 1983, both in Paris. Seems to have been granted several patents in various fields.

 

24h-en-piste agrees: https://www.24h-en-p...php?Pilote=1663

[Vitesse2]

There's a link on Geneanet to the Archives commerciales de la France: journal hebdomadaire, 1937/12/04 confirming the bvd Inkermann address and describing him as a transitaire (forwarding agent) and he's also mentioned in this list of active Resistance members in the files of the Service Historique de la Defense (SHD), Vincennes. Presumably, like Wimille, he was associated with Benoist's Clergyman circuit?

 

http://www.francaisl...2&nom=Ley&deb=1

[ReWind]

As far as I know he was indeed Pierre Henri Raoul Leygonie (1908 – 1983) from Paris.

While doing research on him one should be alert not to confuse him with Pierre Justin Leygonie (1923 – 2007) who was a painter from Le Creusot.

[Vitesse2]

List of patents which were granted to Leygonie, some with other people:

 

https://patents.goog...eygonie Pierre)

 

The database International Patents 1890-2020, via Ancestry, also gives FR682166A, which Google has listed as by Pierre Ligonie, but is likely our man too.

 

So as well as being un homme de commerce he seems to have been an engineer of sorts.

[Doug Nye]

  Oh my goodness!

 

Thank you all very much for your time and expertise...

 

DCN

[Vitesse2]

Some more on his pit work for Bugatti, specifically Le Mans 1939. 'Le sage M Leygonie' seems to have been an accomplished timekeeper and lap charter:

 

https://gallica.bnf....r=Leygonie.zoom

 

L'Auto also has occasional mentions of a Madame Leygonie in its table tennis and tennis tournament results between 1938 and 1944. Her maiden name appears to have been de Théno and she is said to have been one of the leading table tennis players in the world - no definite link to Pierre that I can see, but it might be relevant.

[Roger Clark]

He was entered with Wimille in a Bugatti for the 1935 Monte Carlo Rally and raced with Macklin at Le Mans 1954.  Their OSCA led the 1.5-litre class for much of the race but it seems to been a case of Macklin regaining the ground lost by Leygonie.  Eventually Leygonie spun, not for the first time, and damaged the front of the car.  He restarted but was disqualified for receiving outside assistance, although Autosport said it was for abandoning the car on the circuit.  There is a photograph of the damaged car in Autosport June 18th 1954.  OSCA, but Orsini and Zagari has a photo which it say is the car, but it isn't.

[robert dick]

Leygonie appears several times between 1931 and 1936 in the ACF's list of "licence de conducteur" and "licence de concurrent",
for example in the ACF's Bulletin Officiel, January 1933, page 24:




As it is of interest in general - the ACF bulletin:
https://gallica.bnf....7813g/date.item

= = = =

In 1950, on Le Mans day, Le Figaro's Didier Merlin had him superbly described as "Leygonie qui fait équipe avec le diplomate automobiliste Porfirio Rubirosa".
 

[robert dick]

Rubirosa and (I think) Leygonie:
https://media.gettyi...989?s=2048x2048