1872-1937
John Watt Heron Aitken was born at Chorlton, Manchester on 1st June 1872. He served his apprenticeship with Jim Mumford and later was with Martin Gurry and Richard Marsh. He also rode as a steeplechase jockey to Major Edwards’ stable and gained riding experience in Belgium, France and India.
From 1922, he trained a small string at Newmarket.
On Monday, 13 December 1937, whilst travelling along the Great North Road near Grantham, John Aitken, of Holm Les, Cardington Street, Newmarket, and his travelling companion, jockey William Stephenson of Cleveleys, Newmarket, met with a serious accident at Great Ponton, a village some four miles to the south of Grantham.
The vehicle, driven by Harold Arthur Hobson of Cambridge, crashed into a stationary lorry, driven by Frederick Ernest Gregory, of Niton Road, Grantham.
John Aitken, Stephenson and Hobson were treated at Great Ponton by a doctor before the critically injured trainer, suffering from a fractured skull and severe abrasions, was rushed on to Grantham Hospital by ambulance.
Willie Stephenson, meanwhile, having fortuitously escaped with just minor cuts, was able to hurry on to Nottingham to ride Captain J. C. Storie’s Broken Glass in the three-year-old hurdle. The horse ran unplaced.
It was thought that the dangerous state of the road was responsible for the accident.
On Saturday, 18 December, John regained consciousness for a brief few hours before, on Thursday 23 December, finally succumbing to his injuries.
John’s funeral took place at Newmarket Cemetery at 3 p.m. on Tuesday 28 December 1937.
