Sir James Duke

Sir James Duke

1865-1935

Sir James Duke, 2nd Baronet, rode as an amateur for a few seasons in the latter years of the 19th century and recorded 39 victories over jumps plus several on the Flat between 1887 and 1895.

He was born at 43 Portland Place, Marylebone, London but there is an element of doubt about his actual date of birth. While most sources give the date as June 28, 1835, his Ancestry page lists it as January 25, 1835. He was the only son of Sir James Duke, 1st Baronet (1792-1873), a Liberal Party politician who served as Sheriff of the City of London in 1837 and Lord Mayor of London in 1848-49. He sat in the House of Commons from 1837 to 1865 and was appointed High Sheriff of Sussex for 1872. He died on May 28, 1873 at his home at Laughton Lodge, Loughton, in Sussex. His son thus succeeded to the title as 2nd Baronet when he was eight years old.

Sir James was raised at Laughton Lodge and educated at Eton. He served briefly in the Cinque Port Division of the Royal Artillery Militia before his sense of wanderlust took him to Australia, from where he returned and began indulging in breeding horses, race-riding and various agricultural pursuits.

He had his first ride under National Hunt rules on Redway in the three-mile Sussex Stakes Chase at the Southdown Hunt and 4th Dragoon Guards meeting at Ringmer on April 10, 1885, finishing second, beaten half a length. He rode his first winner on Little Harry in the Hunters’ Flat Race at Plumpton on Tuesday, January 11, 1887.

In 1888 he registered a score of 19 wins, four of which were achieved on the mare Hyacinth, which Sir James had bought for 125 guineas at the post-race auction after she had won a selling hunters’ flat race at Doncaster in February. He quickly recouped his outlay, winning four hunters’ flat races on her, at Wye and Four Oaks in March, at Chepstow in April and at Hamilton Park in July.

He won four more hunters’ flat races that same year on Warble, including on successive days at Lichfield on 17 & 18 April. The second of those victories was the first leg of a double, completed on Lord Coventry in the Qualifying Hunters’ Steeplechase. He won again on Warbler at Warwick the following week and at the South Notts Hunt Meeting in May.

In addition to his successes under National Hunt rules that year, he also won the Members’ Handicap Cup on the Flat at Lewes on Rapparee. He won the same race again the following year on Cheeky Charlie.

Sir James rode 13 winners under NH rules in 1889, the year in which he married his cousin, Marion Elizabeth Hill, a daughter of James Duke Hill who, along with the first baronet had founded a coal broking business in London, from which both partners amassed a fortune. Sir James and his wife lived at Laughton Lodge.

By 1892 he had begun to cut down his race-riding commitments, achieving his last success over jumps on April 4, 1892 in fortuitous circumstances on Terrier in the Southdown Hunt Cup Chase at the Southdown Hunt fixture at Ringmer, the meeting at which he had launched his career in the saddle seven years earlier. Terrier finished second, beaten 20 lengths by a horse named Haggis, but the winner was subsequently disqualified on technical grounds.

Sir James continued to ride in the occasional amateur riders’ Flat race and finished second on Garland, beaten three-quarters of a length in the Southdown Club Welter Plate at Lewes on April 28, 1893. He won a similar contest there on another of his horses, Cornburg, in 1894.

He rode his final winner on yet another of his own horses, The Corsican, in the Club Open Welter Plate at Lewes on Tuesday, November 5, 1895. It was the seventh time he had won a race at the Sussex venue, his winners at Lewes being:

1888: Members’ Handicap Cup on Rapparee

1889: Members’ Handicap Plate on Cheeky Charlie

1890: Southdown Club Open Welter Plate on Peace-bearer

1890: Club Open Plate on Peace-bearer

1892: Southdown Club Welter Plate on Tabreet

1894: Southdown Club Open Long Welter Plate on Cornburg

1895: Club Open Welter Plate on The Corsican

In 1904 he was involved in an action for slander brought against him by Robert Sievier, owner of the celebrated filly Sceptre. Sir James emerged from the trial with his reputation intact and no damages awarded against him.

Sir James’s wife died in 1928, and in 1932 he married Miss Elizabeth Menzies MacDougall and resided at White Lodge, near Maidenhead, while also having strong connections with Scotland.

He died in an Edinburgh nursing home on July 3, 1935, aged 70. Although he had left Laughton many years earlier, he was buried at Loughton Parish Church, being interned in the family vault in the churchyard. He left £19,577 13s 6d.