Charles Beatty

The eldest son of Captain David Longfield Beatty of Borodale, Co. Wexford, Charles Harold Longfield Beatty was born on 16 January 1870 in Wybunbury, Cheshire.

Charles's father, then living at The Moat, near Rugby, was a fine rider to hounds and a noted breeder of hunters and chasers. He had upward of sixty horses in training at his stables.

Charlie (as he was familiarly known) was educated at Cheltenham before going on to Trinity College, Cambridge.

In 1892, riding Radical in the Dunsmore Plate at Rugby, he won his first steeplechase. Greater success followed, with victories in the Hunt Cups at Warwick and Rugby, each of which he won three times. At Towcester in 1894, he won four steeplechases in one afternoon, being beaten a neck in the fifth.

He then landed Sandown's 1895 Grand International Steeplechase on Colonel Willy Lawson's Kestrel. He also won many races on his father's one-eyed mare Nun and the Atherstone Point-to-Point on his own horse, Jarnac.

Charlie twice competed in the Grand National, each time on Filbert, which came second in 1897 and fourth in 1898. This was the year that he quit the saddle to take over the Bedford Cottage stables of the late Colonel Harry McCalmont. The death of Colonel McCalmont was not without consequence for Charlie; one morning the colonel promised to give the young trainer Bedford Cottage as a gift and had arranged to see Charlie in the evening to set the task in motion. Alas, it was not to be - that very afternoon the Colonel collapsed and died, leaving the trainer gift-less.

The following year, however, the Boer War broke out and (Major) Charles Beatty had to leave with his regiment for South Africa where he earned a D.S.O. 

In 1901, he was back at Bedford Cottage which had been looked after in his absence by Captain Machell, and trained for Lord Howard de Walden. A fine early success came in 1905 when he trained the golden chestnut Zinfandel to win the Ascot Gold Cup. Charlie also sent out St Maclou to win the 1902 Lincoln Handicap, beating the mighty Sceptre in the process. St Maclou then went on to win that year's Manchester November Handicap.

He later continued training with his wife from Bedford House, Bury Road, Newmarket.

Charlie served in WW2 and was severely wounded at St Eloi in April 1916. His left arm was amputated.

Major Charles Beatty, aged 47, died on May 17, 1917, at Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, London, undergoing an operation after aggravating the injury falling from a horse. He was buried at Atherstone with full military honours.