1913-1988
National Hunt jockey Henry Thomas Cross – always known as Tommy – was born on February 7, 1913, and lived at Nelson House, East Ilsley, Newbury. He served his apprenticeship with Ben Roberts at Cheltenham.
He won his first race riding Lord Puttenden at Worcester in the early 1930s.
He enjoyed his most successful year in 1948 when he rode 17 winners. This was also the year that he married Cynthia Coronel (on May 8). She gave him a son, Howard Thomas.
In 1949, he began training near Calne, Wiltshire. From there he had his biggest success when he trained Gorse, whom he also rode, to win the National Hunt Juvenile Chase (now discontinued) at the Cheltenham Festival meeting in 1951.
Tommy moved his training operation to Nelson House in East Ilsley in 1952 and continued to combine training with riding until 1958. He never again rode more than five winners in a single season but there were highlights, such as a Boxing Day double at Newton Abbot in 1952 aboard Rapid Rise and Dapper Dandy. He won again on Dapper Dandy later that season and a further three times the following season.
Another useful sort was the chaser Clareville, who provided Tommy with his last three wins in the saddle, at Taunton and Wye in October 1957 and, finally, back at Taunton on May 15, 1958.
The brother of successful Stockbridge trainer Vernon Cross, Tommy relinquished his own trainer's licence in 1961 to concentrate on farming. He did, however, make a brief return to training during the late 1970' and early 1980s.
Tommy died at his Somerset home on December 29, 1988, aged 75, after a short illness.