David Biddle
David was the youngest of the six children of Mr & Mrs Henry James Biddle, and was born at Wavertone, near Chester. He learned to ride at the age of three and, a year later, was the proud owner of his own pony. He was educated at Sutton Secondary School for Boys (Wirral) which he left at the age of fifteen in 1963 to become a stable boy and apprentice jockey to Newmarket trainer Fred Armstrong. Here he excelled, riding 22 winners in the short time that he was there, scoring at Chester, Liverpool, Lingfield, Ayr, Ripon, Newbury, Brighton and Leicester.
David Biddle was killed when Street Martial, the three-year-old colt he was exercising on Newmarket Heath, bolted before colliding with a tree. Mr T. Wilson, Coroner for the liberty of Bury St Edmunds, recorded a verdict of ‘Death by Misadventure’ on David, who had been living in Wellington Road, Broughton. Newmarket jockey Mr Walter Swinburn said he was riding behind David when Street Martial ‘whipped round’ and galloped away, disappearing into a copse. The head lad to Captain Boyd-Rochfort said he saw the horse bolting towards him. David ‘was sitting perfectly still and letting the colt find his own way through the woods’. As Street Martial drew level with him there was a crack and David was thrown about three feet into the air. The horse, uninjured, galloped on. Mr R. W. Armstrong, assistant trainer to Fred Armstrong, said that the horse was one of the quietest he had ever known and David was ‘an extremely competent rider’. He added ‘This is a tragedy and we shall all miss him very much.’
Dr A. Kunarsen said that the young jockey was dead when he arrived at Newmarket General Hospital. There were injuries to the head and forearm which were consistent with a rider being thrown from a horse against a tree. The funeral took place on Wednesday, June 8 1966 at St Mary’s Church, Broughton.
