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Article by Derek Gay
The son of racehorse trainer George Avila and his wife Rosie, George Stanley Avila was born on 11 July 1893 at Navestock Hall, Grangewood, Romford, Essex, in1893.
Oddly, his father always called him Stanley.
Young George was taught to ride by his father and, by the age of ten, was out with the local hunt.
He was first apprenticed to Bill Elsey and re-indentured to trainer Charles Victor Tabor before returning to ride again for his father. He rode a total of 12 winners on the Flat.
Increasing weight saw him switch to jumping: he joined George Poole's stables at Lewes in Sussex and began riding plenty of winners.
Poole's mantra was 'a winner's a winner' whether the race was big or small: they targeted the smaller local courses and became a feared partnership.
The stable was backed up by the Rees brothers, who were just beginning the careers as amateurs.
This arrangement enabled George to be constantly in the top half-dozen in the jockeys' table (he was twice runner-up, in 1912 with 63 wins & 1913 with 47).
In 9 seasons' riding (3 were affected by the war & his final season only 3 months in) he rode 217 winners (plus a further 10 in Ireland during the 1916 season).
He had two Grand National rides (one in a wartime National). His biggest win on Romeo (right) in the 1914 Liverpool Hurdle.
At the start of the war, he - alongside George Poole – signed up. George became a Sergeant in the North Staffordshire Regiment: he was allowed time off to ride, including a spell in Ireland in 1916.
Having come through the war unscathed, he resumed his career in 1919 but made a slow start to the campaign.
He fell ill that March as a flu pandemic swept through Europe.
Unmarried, he was nursed in his final days by George Poole's sister, Minnie.
It was thought that there was a romance between the pair: sadly, George died at his home in Grangewood on March 13 that year. He was 25.
George was well-thought of by his fellow jockeys, Ernie Piggott describing him as a fine fellow. Many of his weighing room colleagues attended his funeral.
Minnie never married after his death, spending much of her time as a secretary in Ireland, where she bought horses for her brother.
Fred Rees stepped into the void left by his great friend and went on to become champion jockey with Poole's help.
George almost certainly would have been on Poole's 1921 Grand National winner, Shaun Spadah, which Fred rode to victory.
Fred Rees received a letter from George's father congratulating him but lamenting the fact that 'dear Stanley's great wish to ride the Grand National winner would now never be'.
A lot of the above information was supplied by Fred Rees' daughter, Patsy, and by George Poole's nephew, who sadly passed away some years ago.
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