Herbrand Alexander

Hon. Herbrand Alexander

1888 -1965

Amateur rider Herbrand Alexander enjoyed his greatest success in the saddle when winning the 1922 Cheltenham Foxhunters’ Chase. Ten years earlier he had been reprieved from a watery grave when electing to ride in the Kildare Cup at Punchestown.

The Hon. Herbrand Charles Alexander was born on November 28, 1888, the second son of Major James Alexander, 4th Earl of Caledon and Lady Elizabeth Alexander, Countess of Caledon. 

He spent his early childhood at his parents’ Caledon Castle before being educated at Harrow School. In January 1908 he began his training at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and then joined the 5th Royal Irish Lancers as an officer. He was appointed Second Lieutenant in 1909 and further promoted to Lieutenant in 1910. 

While serving with the Lancers he rode under National Hunt rules in Ireland. In 1912, he won the four-mile Kildare Hunt Cup over the banks at Punchestown on Bruce Hall. Fortuitously as it turned out, in order to take part in the race, he waived the ticket which had been booked for him aboard the ill-fated maiden voyage of the Titanic. 

He fought in the First World War with the 5th Royal Irish Lancers and was mentioned in despatches three times. On January 1, 1915 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for “exceedingly good work in action and in reconnaissance, since the commencement of the war”. He was promoted to the rank of captain in June 1918. 

On February 11, 1919, he married Millicent Meredyth, the only daughter of Sir Henry Meredyth, 5th Baronet. They were divorced in 1927. He married the Hon. Ada Kate Bellew, daughter of Edward Bellew, the 2nd Barron Bellew, on July 1, 1937. 

Having returned to race-riding after the war, he was Ireland’s champion amateur rider in 1922. He obtained a trainer’s licence the same year. 

It was a momentous year for him because he also enjoyed his greatest success in the saddle when winning the 1922 Cheltenham Foxhunters’ Challenge Cup on 10-1 shot Connemara Black, whom he both owned and trained in Ireland. What made the feat all the more remarkable was that Connemara Black had run over the same four-mile trip the previous day when being pulled up by his owner-trainer-rider in the National Hunt Chase, 

Herbrand participated in World War Two, acting, among other things, as adjutant to the Norwegian King Haakon VII. In 1941 he became the temporary Lieutenant-Colonel of the Australian Imperial Force. In March 1945 he became Lieutenant Colonel of the Royal Armoured Corps.  

After the war he became a very successful racehorse breeder, his best horse being the unbeaten two-year-old Windy City, winner of the Phoenix Plate in Ireland and York’s Gimcrack Stakes by five lengths in 1951. In doing so, Windy City was given a Timeform rating of 142. To date, only six two-year-olds have achieved a higher rating.  

The Hon. Herbrand Charles Alexander died in Dublin on May 6, 1965, aged 76. His son by his first marriage, Dennis James Alexander, became the 6th Earl of Caledon when Herbrand’s elder brother Eric, the 5th Earl, died childless in 1968.

His success as a rider – and no doubt his military career too – earned him the nickname ‘Firebrand’. It was under this title that his great-granddaughter Lady Jane Alexander wrote his memoir ‘The Life and Times of Herbrand Alexander’, published in 2010.