Henry Deterding

Henry Deterding was born at Gravenhage, in the Netherlands on September 8, 1897. He was the son of Sir Henri Wilhelm August Deterding (1866-1939), joint founder of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, then chairman of the combined Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company, and known as the ‘Napoleon of Oil’. Married to Dutchwoman Katherine Louisa Neubronner,

Henri was regarded as a Nazi sympathiser, a belief confirmed on his death in 1939 when Hitler sent a funeral wreath.

Henry Deterding served in the Great War and in World War II, although he does not appear to have attained an officer ranking, or, if he did, continued to use ‘Mr’ rather than rank to precede his name. During the inter-war period he rode as an amateur, recording 55 wins under National Hunt rules. The first of those came on Birdsall in the Maiden Chase at the Norwich Hunt fixture at Hethersett on April 29, 1920.

He registered a treble at the corresponding meeting twelve months later, winning the Maiden Chase on Hailstorm, the Military Chase on Victor Haig, then reuniting with Hailstorm to land the Open Hunters’ Chase.

He enjoyed his most successful year in 1924 with 15 wins, placing him second the amateur riders’ championship.

In 1925 he rode the 3-1 favourite Black Abbott in the National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham, having bought the horse for a substantial sum earlier that year from Major David Campbell and finished second on him in a good three-mile three-furlong chase at Birmingham. Alas, Black Abbot fell. The bad luck continued as it was another seven outings until the partnership won a race, a Kempton chase in January 1927, but Black Abbott never ran again and died later in the year.

Henry rode Rathowen in the 1928 Grand National but was among the 40 who failed to get round in that extraordinary year when 100-1 outsider Tipperary Tim beat the remounted Billy Barton, they being the only two to complete the course. Ten days later, Henry rode Rathowen to victory in the Towcester Handicap Chase at Grafton Hunt – as Towcester was then known – on Easter Monday.

His last winning ride was on Kemmel in the Newport County Handicap Hurdle at Newport on April 27, 1934. He had his final two mounts at Towcester – as it was by then called – on Columbus, who finished fourth in the Three-Mile Handicap Chase, and Airman, who came third in the Harwell Maiden Hurdle.

Henry Deterding died at Daventry, Northamptonshire on October 1, 1975, aged 78.