Richard Courage

Richard Henry ‘Dicky’ Courage was born on November 14, 1909, the son of Commander A. V. Courage. An accomplished horseman, top-class polo player, owner and trainer, he became the first – and thus far only – serving naval officer to own and ride the winner of the Grand Military Gold Cup, His racing colours were black, red sleeves, pale blue cap.

He was dispatched to Dartmouth when aged just 13 and went to sea in the battleship Warspite. Also in Warspite at that time was Lieutenant-Commander Lord Mountbatten, in the process of making his professional name as the assistant fleet wireless officer. 

Dicky had his first ride in public at the Hambledon Hunt point-to-point in 1926 at the age of 16. He rode in four Grand Military Gold Cups, finishing fourth at his first attempt on Fortnum in 1932. Twenty-four hours later, the pair were back in action, winning the Grand Military Handicap Chase by a short-head. They followed up over the same course and distance later that month by winning the Military Hunters’ Chase at Sandown’s Royal Artillery meeting. Seven days later they added the Open Military Hunters’ Chase at Hawthorn Hill’s Household Brigade fixture. Upped considerably in grade, they then finished an honourable fifth back at Sandown in the Grand International Handicap Chase. 

Another good horse he rode was Blue Peter III, owned and trained by his father. Dicky rode him to win four hunter chases in 1931 including the Farnborough Open Cup at the Aldershot Military bona fide meeting, plus, in 1932, a Wye hunter chase and the Aldershot Open Cup at the corresponding Aldershot bona fide fixture. 

Blue Peter III went on to win four more chases in 1933 including the Plumpton Cup, ridden on all occasions by Mr Frank Cundell. Cundell was also in the saddle when the horse completed the course in Golden Miller’s 1934 Grand National. 

After two years of loan service with the Royal New Zealand Navy in the cruiser Dunedin, Dicky returned home to qualify as a signals specialist in 1935. He rode Young Cuthbert to win that year’s Grand Military Gold Cup, leading from the first fence and holding on to win by two lengths in a field of 19 runners. 

As squadron signals officer to Rear-Admiral Max Horton in the cruiser London, he took part in the Abyssinian crisis and the evacuation of refugees from the Spanish Civil War.

From June 1939 until November 1941 Dicky was Fleet Signals Officer, East Indies Station, based at Colombo. There he displayed considerable innovatory leadership in setting up the area communications needed for the impending war. For this work he was appointed OBE.

A tour as a signals instructor was followed by appointment in August 1942 to the cruiser Scylla as Home Fleet Signals Officer. He was also on the staff of Rear-Admiral Bob Burnett, who commanded the escorting forces for the large convoy PQ18 from Loch Ewe to Murmansk. PQ18 had a hard-fought passage, losing ten ships to air attack and three to U-boats. For his coolness and professionalism in managing the complex communications of this operation, he was awarded the DSC. 

He was in the battleship Duke of York when the Home Fleet, under Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, acting on Enigma information, entrapped and sank the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst on December 26, 1943. 

In May 1944, working under conditions of secrecy and haste, Dicky successfully set up the naval communications for the D-Day invasion at Eisenhower's headquarters in Southwick House near Portsmouth. 

Later that year Admiral Fraser was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Pacific Fleet and immediately asked for Dicky as his Fleet Signals Officer. His urgent task was to convert the British to American communications procedures, equipment, publications and codes. With Fraser, he was one of the few British officers to witness the Japanese signature of surrender aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

After the war he was appointed second-in-command of the aircraft carrier Illustrious and had staff tours with the Fleet Air Arm and in the Admiralty. Next came his only seagoing command, the sloop Flamingo in the Persian Gulf, where he was involved in the Iranian crisis of 1950-51.

He had his fourth and last mount in the Grand Military Gold Cup on Lady Gorgeous in 1950, but pulled the mare up. He finished third on Prudent Glen in the 1952 Liverpool Foxhunters’ Chase. That horse was also his final ride when finishing last of eight in a Stratford hunters’ chase on May 8, 1952. 

His last naval appointment before he retired at his own request in 1953 was command of the naval air station near Warrington, HMS Blackcap. 

He then joined the family brewing firm of Courage as a director. He was responsible for overseeing the development of the firm’s public houses, first in the East End of London and later in Reading. His love of the Turf was clearly seen in his ensuring that many of Courage’s new pubs were named after horses. 

In retirement he settled at Petworth, Sussex. He and his wife Philippa, whom he had married in 1937, were enthusiastic racegoers, even when he was confined to a wheelchair by arthritic hips. He attended the celebrations of the 150th running of the Grand Military at Sandown in 1990.

Captain Richard Courage, OBE, DSC, died on February 27, 1998, aged 88. He was survived by his wife and their son and daughter.