David Campbell

David Graham Muschet Campbell was born on 28 January 1869 and was the jockey on board the seven-year-old The Soarer when that horse won the 1896 Grand National (Friday, March 27).

Campbell had bought it in Ireland from its breeder, Pat Doyle, for a modest sum and, as jockey/owner, promptly won seven races over fences.

In early 1896, the horse, having become difficult to train, was sold for £500 and the promise that he would be allowed to ride the horse in the forthcoming Grand National.

This he duly did, bring the 40/1 shot home a length and a half clear of his field.

Campbell won successive runnings of the Grand Military Gold Cup at Sandown - Nelly Gray in 1896 and Parapluie in 1897.

During World War One, Lt-Col David Campbell was hit as he led the Ninth Lancers in one of the first cavalry charges of the war. His company was cut to pieces by a combination of barbed wire and machine gunfire. Campbell recovered to fight on in the trenches and survived the war.

He was knighted in 1919 and was appointed Governor of Malta

Sir David Campbell died at Westminster on 12 March 1936 aged 67. He left £16,594

For reasons now lost in time, his divisional staff referred to him as Barbara.