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George Miles Watson F/Mc Married: 1923 Alathea Mary Pauline Alys Langdale F/Mc | ||||||||
| Joseph Rupert Eric Robert Watson [CFT #14464] Born: 1924-Jan-22 Died: 2003-Aug-8 |
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| Dl Educated at Eton and usually known by the name Rupert he succeeded to the title on 10th June 1968. He was Jockey Club representative on the Horserace Levy Board between 1970 and 1975. He was a Captain in the 7th Hussars and Life Guards and Deputy Lieutenant of Humberside in 1980. Rupert was Senior Steward Jockey Club between 1982 and 1985. He was given Houghton Hall, the ancient seat of the extinct Barony of Langdale, by his maternal aunt Countess Fitzwilliam (1898-1995) nee Joyce Elizabeth Mary Langdale, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Lt. Col. Philip Joseph Langdale, who from 1856 was the wife of Thomas Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 10th Earl Fitzwilliam (1904-1979). With her husband's home, Wentworth Woodhouse, near Rotherham, Yorkshire, being the largest private residence in England, and with his second seat of Milton Hall, Peterborough, being the largest house in Cambridgeshire, also at her disposal, she may have felt little need to retain Houghton Hall for her own use! OBITUARY Daily Telegraph "The 3rd Lord Manton, who has died aged 79, was a farmer and landowner in Yorkshire and a passionate man of the Turf. In the 1980s Manton became one of the most successful Senior Stewards that the Jockey Club has had in recent years. This was partly because he was a first-class administrator; but it also owed much to the fact that he brought to the job personal experience of racing as a jockey, owner and breeder. As an amateur rider in his young days, when he was plain Rupert Watson, he had ridden 130 winners, including Gay Monarch in the 1955 Kim Muir chase at the Cheltenham Festival. He also enjoyed success as an owner and breeder. One of his proudest moments came in 1998, when Silver Stick, ridden by his son Milo, won the Grand Military Gold Cup at Sandown. Manton told the Queen Mother, who was presenting the trophies: "I saddled the horse; I bred the horse - and the jockey." His Senior Stewardship of the Jockey Club from 1982 to 1985 was a tumultuous period for racing, and saw Manton arguing for many of the changes that have since come to pass. Better-appointed betting shops, he believed, would help to reduce illegal gambling; thus, in 1982, he led a deputation to the Home Secretary, Willie Whitelaw, requesting him to allow betting shops to televise races. The same delegation asked the Chancellor, Geoffrey Howe, to reduce tax both on and off the racecourse. During his tenure there were reforms of the stewarding system, and a working party was set up to investigate the possibility of Sunday racing. Meanwhile, commercial sponsorship was introduced for the five classic races, and plastic running rails replaced concrete posts on racecourses. Manton also played an important part in saving the Grand National, the future of which was under threat before Seagram stepped in with sponsorship money. To raise money for this cause, Manton dressed up as a jockey to take part in a bicycle race round Hyde Park. Joseph Rupert Eric Robert Watson was born on January 22 1924, only son of the 2nd Lord Manton and his first wife, Alethea, a daughter of Colonel Philip Langdale. The Mantons were divorced when their son was 12. Rupert's grandfather, the Leeds soap millionaire Joseph Watson - who was created a peer, as Baron Manton, in January 1922, but died in the hunting field less than two months later - was a successful racehorse owner, and bought the famous Manton stables and gallops near Marlborough, in Wiltshire. Rupert's father rode under National Hunt Rules in the 1920s, and also travelled widely in South America and India on behalf of the British Bloodstock Agency. He went on to become a breeder of thoroughbred racehorses - and of cattle - and a director of Newmarket Bloodstock. His stud, at Plumpton Place, near Lewes, in Sussex, which he bought in 1938, produced the high-class sprinter Hard Sauce, who sired Hard Ridden, winner of the Derby in 1958. After Eton, Rupert Watson joined the Army in 1942. He was commissioned into the Life Guards in 1943 and saw service in Italy, Germany and Egypt. He retired from the Army in 1947, in the rank of captain, but then rejoined and served again, in the 7th (Queen's Own) Hussars, from 1951 to 1956. He was appointed Adjutant to the Leicestershire Yeomanry (the 7th Hussars' sister regiment). He had married in 1951, and settled with his wife near Melton Mowbray, in Rutland. Subsequently, in civilian life and with five young children - including triplets - he and his young family migrated to North Yorkshire, where his aunt (his mother's sister), Countess Fitzwilliam, had made over to him Houghton Hall, at Sancton, near York, with its 5,000-acre estate. He succeeded to the peerage on his father's death in 1968. From 1970 to 1975, Manton was a member of the Horserace Betting Levy Board, the organisation formed in 1961 to raise money from the bookmakers to plough back into racing. He was chairman of the York Race Committee (1985-91); a member of the Tattersalls Committee, which rules on betting disputes; and a steward at Beverley, York and Doncaster racecourses. He was a director of Thirsk racecourse from 1970. Aside from racing, Lord Manton enjoyed hunting and shooting. Well known on the hunting field in Leicestershire, he was field master of the Belvoir Hounds and the Quorn. He was also an excellent bridge player. In 1980 he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Humberside. He married, in 1951, Mary (Mimi) Hallinan, twin daughter of Major T D Hallinan, of Co Cork. They had two sons and three daughters, of whom the two sons and a daughter are triplets. Lord Manton died on August 8. His eldest son, Miles Ronald Marcus Watson, an officer in the Life Guards, born (20 minutes ahead of his brother) in 1958, succeeds to the peerage." |
1: 1952 Claire Georgina Watsonc 2: 1953 Fiona Caroline Watsonc 3: 1958 Victoria Monica Watsonc 4: 1958 Thomas Philip Watsonc 5: 1958 Miles Ronald Marcus Watsonc W/C | |||||||
| 5 Children | ||||||||
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