Mr Lloyd Thomas

Hugh Lloyd-Thomas

1888-1938

Hugh Lloyd-Thomas was born in Calcutta on April 28, 1888. A tall, good-looking, immaculate man of great charm and distinction, with a slight drawl, he was a fine rider to hounds and a competent amateur rider, competing successfully under National Hunt rules during the 1920s and first half of the 1930s and achieving his most important success when winning the 1932 Grand Sefton Chase on his own mare Destiny Bay. 

Among his best horses was Royal Mail, on whom he won a maiden hurdle at Hawthorn Hill in March 1934. Royal Mail won six steeplechases the following year. He was ridden by professional jockeys in four of them but Hugh had the pleasure of riding him to victory in the Howard Chase at Lingfield in January and the Forest Amateur Riders’ Chase at Windsor in December. He retired from race-riding in 1936.

A former assistant secretary to the Duke of Windsor (then Prince of Wales), he held the post of Minister Plenipotentiary at the British Embassy in Paris at the time that Royal Mail triumphed in the 1937 Grand National in the hands of Evan Williams to give him his greatest triumph as an owner. 

Royal Mail was allotted topweight of 12st 7lb in the 1938 Grand National. It had been assumed that Evan Williams would ride him again, but early in February Mr Lloyd-Thomas announced that he intended to take the mount himself, fitting in race-riding with his duties as a member of the British Diplomatic Service. 

The decision looked a risky one as, although he was a fine horseman, he was by then in his fiftieth year and had done no race-riding for two seasons. His many friends tried their hardest to dissuade him from the venture. 

On February 22, 1938, Mr Lloyd Thomas rode another of his horses, Periwinkle II, in the Harrington Hunters’ Chase at Derby. He decided to set out to make all the running, and it was not until two fences from home that Periwinkle Ⅱ was joined by Tapinette. 

In his eagerness to shake off the challenge, he pushed his mount into the final obstacle. The tiring horse clipped the top of the fence and came down, heavily throwing his rider. Mr Lloyd Thomas, his neck shattered, died almost immediately.

Ominously, before mounting Periwinkle Ⅱ in the paddock, he had said: ‘I am sure to fall with this horse.’

News of his death was communicated at once to the King and Queen and to other members of the royal family. A special message was sent to the Duke of Windsor at whose marriage to Mrs Simpson at the Chateau de Conde the previous June Mr Lloyd Thomas, in his private capacity, had been a guest.

A verdict of ‘Death by misadventure’ was returned at the inquest held by the Derby Coroner, Mr T. H. Bishop, later that evening.

Mr Lloyd Thomas, a well-known figure in French racing and hunting circles, had, in 1936, once suffered an accident on the Paris polo ground when his horse rolled over, and he fell onto a wooden border, injuring his leg and dislocating his shoulder.

In 1916 he had married the Hon. Guendaline Ada Bellew. They had one son and three daughters.

He was buried at Compton Beauchamp on the morning of  25 February 1938. The Duke of Windsor attended the memorial service held later at the British Embassy Club in Paris. He was 49. He left £106, 657.

Royal Mail was sold on March 12 and bought for 6,500 guineas by Mrs Camille Evans. It was arranged that Evan Williams would ride him again at Aintree. However, the 12st 7lb burden proved too much for Royal Mail, who never looked like winning and was eventually pulled up.