AAC History

AAC Values

"Proposed Automobile Club - I should be glad if anyone wishing to join the proposed Automobile Club would send in their names to me at once and I will send circulars as to how it is proposed to be run and its objects." HAROLD NORTH. - advertisement in the local press on August 19, 1904

The inaugural meeting of the Automobile Club of Ceylon was held on November 12, 1904 at the Queen's Hotel, Kandy, with a founder membership of one hundred. Later renamed as the Automobile Association of Ceylon in 1931, modeling its constitution and activities very closely on those of the A.A. of the United Kingdom, with which it entered into federation in the same year.

In 1942 the Association was incorporated according to the Companies Ordinance, thereby limiting the liability of members, and registering itself as an institution run "not for profit".

Events and Milestones

1. 1904 - Inauguration Reliability Trial from Kandy to Kegalle and back.
2. 1927 - Reliability Ttrial from Kandy to Kegalle and back.
3. 1932 - Affiliated to the Alliance International de Tourism, Geneva, Switzerland (the World's largest Motoring and Touring Organisation) and entitled to issue the International Driving Permits, Carnets de Passages, Triptyques and other foreign travel documents.
4. 1934 - Hill Climbing.
5. 1927 - Motor Show.
6. 1927 - Commencement of the publication of "The Record".
7. 1929 - Free Legal Defence Scheme.
8. 1957 - Joined the Union of Commonwealth Automobile Association
9. 1957 - AAC Incorporated by an Act of Parliament

Membership Growth

1. 1904 - 100
2. 1910 - 200
3. 1916 - 750
4. 1948 - 4,700
5. 1953 - 10,000
6. 1961 - 16,000
7. Present - 11,200

AAC premises

1. 1904 - 1925 in Kandy
2. 1925 - 1938 at Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Building Colombo
3. 1938 - 1946 in Iceland Buildings, Colpetty
4. 1946 - presently at No. 28, Church Road, Galle Face.

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