Posted on 09/04/2006 7:46:06 PM PDT by dighton
Tim Fitzgeorge-Parker, who died on August 14 aged 86, was a well-known personality in the world of horse racing; after a “good war” with the Royal Scots Greys he enjoyed a brief career as a trainer before becoming a racing journalist and prolific author.
Fitzgeorge-Parker was one of those people to whom stories accrued. In 1946, while still a serving soldier, he was supervising the reconstruction of the bomb-damaged German Derby course at Hamburg when he was asked to help locate bloodstock which had been looted from France by the Germans.
The investigation took him to a stud in Schleswig-Holstein where he and his colleague found that a number of huge draught horses had been used to produce “vast liver chestnuts, standing about 20 hands”.
When Fitzgeorge-Parker asked what was the point of these “useless animals”, he was told by the stud manager that this was a project that had been ordained by the Führer himself: “I was given old pictures and unlimited resources with orders to produce the true medieval Crusaders’ horse, so that Hitler, in a suit of shining armour, could ride as conqueror through the streets of London.”
Timothy Barclay Fitzgeorge-Parker was born at Chipstead, Surrey, on July 29 1920. He was educated at Loretto, representing the school at athletics, boxing and rugby (he was later a qualified boxing and football referee).
He went on to Sandhurst, where he was reputed to be the last man fully-trained as a cavalry instructor, and in 1939 was commissioned into the Royal Scots Greys, joining his regiment in Palestine.
Fitzgeorge-Parker took part in the Syrian campaign against the Vichy French and served with his regiment — by then a mechanised unit — in the North Africa campaign from Alamein to Tripoli; he recalled that if any of the Greys were sent back to Alexandria, they were given a large flask to fill up with cocktails from the Cecil Hotel.
On one occasion during the desert campaign, Fitzgeorge-Parker got lost while returning to his base; spotting a camp he drove towards it, only to find that it was Rommel’s headquarters.
He was locked up, but escaped through an open window and stole a Jeep (he always said that he suspected the Germans left the window open on purpose because they did not wish to be weighed down by PoWs).
In September 1943 the regiment took part in the landings at Salerno, southern Italy. On September 9 Fitzgeorge-Parker, then a lieutenant, was an assault troop leader in C Squadron supporting the infantry in an attack on Monte Corvino airfield.
The infantry were almost at the aerodrome hangers when they were held up by enemy light AA guns. Fitzgeorge-Parker brought up his troop of tanks and quickly knocked out the guns and took 25 prisoners. He then destroyed two tanks, a 75mm gun and several smaller guns.
After the troop was ordered to withdraw, his second sergeant’s tank was put out of action by an 88-mm shot. Fitzgeorge-Parker tried to tow it, but it was impossible to move. On the return journey, with a wounded man riding on the back, his tank was fired on by its own infantry but managed to reach base intact.
He spent time in a comfortable farmyard with, he reported later, some “bomb-happy” hens that bounced into the air whenever a gun went off.
Fitzgeorge-Parker, who always went into battle wearing a white silk scarf, was awarded an immediate MC. He was subsequently appointed signals officer, and, although wounded in the course of fierce fighting in Italy, he remained in command of his troop.
Early in 1944 the Greys returned to England to prepare for D-Day, and Fitzgeorge-Parker accompanied them in the Normandy landings in June and during the rest of the campaign in north-west Europe.
In Brussels he accepted a young woman’s invitation back to her flat, but was disturbed to discover, when he opened her wardrobe to hang up his clothes, a German officer’s uniform hanging there.
After the German surrender the Greys moved to cavalry barracks at Luneburg, south of Hamburg. Fitzgeorge-Parker retired from the Army in 1949 in the rank of major.
A fine horseman, Fitzgeorge-Parker was a contender for the British showjumping team in the 1948 Olympics; he rode in point-to-points in the West Country, and at one stage the trainer Fulke Walwyn offered him the job of his amateur jockey, but family commitments prevented his accepting.
Instead Fitzgeorge-Parker became assistant to the trainer Atty Persse before, in 1951, setting up on his own at Lambourn, from where he was to send out more than 50 winners on the flat and over jumps.
He had an expert eye for a yearling. One of his horses, Singing Wave, ran at Aintree, but failed to make it round the Canal Turn at Aintree, ending up in the canal itself, to the delight of the press.
Finding it hard to make ends meet, in 1958 Fitzgeorge-Parker gave up training. His first experience of journalism had been starting the regimental magazine at the end of the war; now he became a contributor to Horse & Hound, and in 1959 joined the Daily Mail, becoming its chief racing correspondent. He was noted for his strong opinions and his talent for picking up exclusives; he also set the newspaper’s record, with 11 consecutive winning naps.
In 1971 Fitzgeorge-Parker left the Mail to go freelance. He was a Raceform columnist for 14 years and wrote for Pacemaker magazine and the Sun. He also published 24 books, including the popular Training the Racehorse.
Fitzgeorge-Parker was the uncle of the trainer Marcus Tregoning, and was immensely proud when his nephew won this year’s Epsom Derby with Sir Percy.
With his first wife, Pauline Whinney, whom he married in 1948, Tim Fitzgeorge-Parker had a son and two daughters, one of whom predeceased him.
He married secondly, in 1973, Eleanor Attfield; they had a daughter and a son
When Fitzgeorge-Parker asked what was the point of these “useless animals”, he was told by the stud manager that this was a project that had been ordained by the Führer himself: “I was given old pictures and unlimited resources with orders to produce the true medieval Crusaders’ horse, so that Hitler, in a suit of shining armour, could ride as conqueror through the streets of London.”
Well, it could have worked. If Hitler knew how to ride. And if he could find a suit of armor to fit. Oh, and also if he'd taken London.
Would some kindly British Freeper please explain this phrase? Thanks much!
Not British nor a gambler, but I found one definition for a NAP: The (self-appointed?) expert's best tip of the day.
The Telegraph's obits are the best.
I always end up wishing I'd known, or known about, people like this while they were still living.
Didja hear about the two Irish queers?
George Fitzpatrick and Patrick Fitzgeorge?
They were a coupla Gaelics...
(stop me before I bring up felching)...............FRegards
obit ping
I know I've seen a Nazi propaganda painting of AH in armor and on horseback but Google Image doesn't seem to have it.
Ja!
I will note a slight correction on the caption -- Lohengrin didn't ride a horse, he rode in a boat pulled by a swan (who turned out to be Elsa's baby brother, I think.)
Interesting, all the previous copies of that picture I've seen had a bayonet slash right down the middle.
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