4:37pm Wednesday 17th February 2010
DICK FRANCIS was a man who won international acclaim in two fields – first as a jockey and then as a thriller writer.
Mr Francis – who lived in Blewbury, near Didcot, for nearly 30 years – died on Saturday, aged 89.
He rode in 2,305 races between 1948 and 1957, winning 345 of them.
His second career saw the creation of 42 novels set in the racing world.
Mr Francis rode for the late Queen Mother and secured many victories for her. However he is best remembered for a failure on one of her horses, Devon Loch, falling 50 yards from the Aintree winning post in the 1956 Grand National, when well ahead of the field.
Mr Francis retired after a bad fall at Newbury a few months later and went on to publish his autobiography The Sport of Queens. Five years later, came his first novel, Dead Cert, published in 1962, and his second, Nerve, two years later.
Mr Francis was born in Tenby, South Wales, the younger son of a horse broker. He grew up in Maidenhead, Berkshire.
In 1940 he joined the RAF as a bomber pilot and after the Second World War began work at his father’s stables in 1946, where he became a steeplechase trainer’s assistant and amateur jockey.
He married teacher Mary Brenchley in 1947. He became a professional jockey in 1948 and was retained by Lord Bicester.
In 1953 he also joined Peter Cazalet’s yard, where many of the Queen Mother’s horses were trained and he rode for her frequently.
In 1987 Mr Francis, father to sons Merrick and Felix, moved to Florida with Mary and then to the Cayman Islands. Mrs Francis died in 2000.
Mr Francis received accolades for his writing, including the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1970 and 1980, Gold Dagger Award 1980 and Cartier Diamond Dagger Award 1989, all for best crime novel of the year, as well as an OBE and a CBE.
Crossfire, a new novel, co-authored by Mr Francis and his son Felix, will be published later this year.
Felix said he was “devastated” at the loss of his father.
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