Geoffrey Wilks

Thousands watching the Woodland Pytchley Hunts meeting at Dingley on April 15, 1948, were unaware that a tragedy had happened in the second race.

Lying second and rounding a bend about halfway round the course, farmer Geoffrey T. Wilks was seen to sway in the saddle and fall heavily to the ground which the sun had rendered hard. He was riding the favourite, Hard Cash.

Ambulance men ran to his assistance and he was stretchered on a gate to the ambulance tent where one of the three doctors on the course ordered artificial respiration.

However, Mr Wilks - who had complained of feeling unwell before the race - was already dead. A later post-mortem examination revealed that he had died from a heart attack.

One of his two sons was on the course, while another relative, on hearing of the tragedy, left Dingley to break the news to Mr Wilks's daughter, at school at Brackley.

Mr Wilks, who hunted with both the Grafton and the Bicester, lived at The Corner House, Sulgrave, and farmed at Charwelton.

He had, said friends, been looking forward to riding at Dingley and had also entered a horse at Bicester on Saturday. He had seemed in the best of spirits when leaving for the racecourse that morning: - in fact, the day before he had been taking part in hunter trials.

A man of many interests, he was a keen supporter of the Conservative Association, had been a parish councillor and an active A.R.P. worker.

Geoffrey Thomas Wilks was 57. He left a widow, two sons and a daughter.