Richard Meysey-Thompson

Richard Frederick Meysey-Thompson made his racing debut at the Hampshire Hunt Meeting at Waterloo in the spring of 1867 when he rode the unfancied Moorhen, which finished unplaced behind dead-heaters Balham and Gerlert.

He never refused a mount, no matter how unpromising. He told his friends: 'No one is likely to give me good mounts at present, so I must ride what I can get. I must for now practice in public so that when better horses come my way I shall be able to make the most of them.'

The first half-decent mount he was offered was Leading Suit in the 1870 Grand Military at Aldershot. He finished third behind Chaddington and Aurifera. He gained compensation the following day when Leading Suit won the Light Division Steeplechase.

Meysey-Thompson then completed a double when landing the Infantry Steeplechase with some ease on Tilbury Nogo in the very next race. Unfortunately, the judge who had enjoyed a liquid lunch, mistook the colours, and hoisted the wrong number. In vain, Meysey-Thompson remonstrated with him, but the judge was not for turning. Pressure by senior officials was put on the owner of Tilbury Nogo, who eventually gave way and accepted the incorrect result.

The horse was then sent to the post for a second race later that day. This time it won more easily than before, but Meysey-Thompson was still fuming. He had backed Tilbury Nogo for all he could afford in the first race, and had not had a penny on him in the second.

After finishing fourth in the 1871 Grand Military Gold Cup, ran that year over the old Windsor course, Meysey-Thompson was required for military duties abroad and did not climb back into a racing saddle until 1874, winning two hurdle races, one on Lord Torphichen's Fiddle and the other on his own Fortal, a headstong, erratic jumper.

He entered Fortal for that year's Aldershot Hurdle: he was up against a good field ridden by the best soldier-jockeys of the day - Fortal, as usual, tore off in front gaining a long lead. The other jockeys ignored him, thinking he was sure to come back, but they had misjudged. Jumping the last, only Captain Knox on Cruiskeen jumped with him, Fortal getting away the quicker for an easy win.

That autumn, the regiment was ordered to Gibraltar, and Meysey-Thompson took with him a small horse, Lackland, which he had bought from jockey George Cooke and which had already won ten races in England. Together they won several races at Jerez de la Frontera - then the Newmarket of Spain - and at Seville. However, the first race Meysey-Thompson rode in Spain was the Rifle Brigade Steeplechase, which he won on his own horse, King Cole. He had bought King Cole for £18 after seeing it pull a cart of straw.

Having put himself in the public eye, he was constantly riding for the next two years, winning most of the big races in Spain.

His last winning ride in Spain came at the Spring Meeting at Jerez de la Frontera in a mile race, riding Petit Verre.

Then he fell ill. He had contracted malaria in the Ashanti War and had wrestled with the illness for twelve years: now, on the advice of his doctors, he returned to England.

He recovered sufficiently to continue a spasmodic career in the saddle, nearly finally ended by a crushing fall from his own horse, Mainspring, at Baldoyle. The damp climate of Ireland was not suitable for a sufferer from malaria, and constant attacks prevented him from riding as often as he would have liked. His last winning ride came on Outlaw in Thirsk's 1887 Cup Race.

Aged 80, he died at his residence, Westwood Mount, Scarborough, on Wednesday, September 1, 1926. He left £17,580 net.