FAIRFAX-BLAKEBOROUGH, Noel

[196] pp.

J.A. Allen

1978

9″ x 5 3/4″

VG/ VG

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MajorJohn Fairfax-BlakeboroughOBEMC(bornGuisborough16 January 1883; diedWesterdale1 January 1976) a.k.a. “Jack” was an English writer and folklorist.

After leaving school he spent three months in a brokers office and then joined theMiddlesbrough Evening Telegraph(later the Evening Gazette). At twenty-one he became a freelance writer, specialising in country sports and horse racing.

From childhood, he had been interested in horses, racing and hunting and he gained practical experience of horses in a three-year spell at a training stable in Cleveland, in addition to his two days a week of hunting.

During the First World War he served as a Major in15th/19th The King’s Royal Hussars, being awarded theMilitary Cross. After the war he became a racing judge at Sedgefield and remained a licensed Turf official until shortly before his death. At the same time, he became secretary of theCleveland Bay Horse Society, a post he held for twenty years, later becoming the Societys president. He also owned, rode and raced his own horses.

He was the author of 112 books on the history of horse racing, Yorkshire folklore and theCleveland Bay. Among the best known of these areYorkshire Days and Yorkshire Ways(1935) andThe Spirit of Yorkshire(1954, written with his sonRichard Noel John Fairfax-Blakeborough). He also wrote regularly for theDarlington and Stockton Times(for 54 years) and forYorkshire Life.

He died at his home, Low House, Westerdale, Whitby, on 1 January 1976.