A REAL GENTLEMAN

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 25, 29 July 1939, Page 22

A REAL GENTLEMAN

THE KING'S LATE JOCKEY

J. Crouch, the King's jockey, who was killed last month when an aeroplane in which he was travelling crashed into a hillside only a short distance from its destination, the Newcastle racecourse, was the youngest King's jockey there has ever been. He was only a few years out of his apprenticeship with that great teacher of riders, Stanley Wootton, and he had been the Royal jockey ever since the termination of his apprenticeship. There can be no doubt that he would have held that honoured and muchprized position for many years to come, for he was a very reserved young man and a most capable rider. Crouch had known all about ponies tirom his earliest childhood, for his father used several in his business as a greengrocer in Deptford. It was part of young Crouch's duties to help in taking those ponies out into the country during weekends, with the result that, when he was apprenticed j Wootton at Epsom, he was already able to sit a pony, which assisted him con siderably when he was lucky enough to become a pupil in Wootton's famous racing preparatory school. He was one of Wootton's most successful apprentices, and also one of his most gentlemanly, which is recording much. He rode a number of winners for his master and later for the Royal stable. All of which is merely a record of his achievements. His death was a terrible tragedy. Only the day before he and his wife-to-be —they were to be married on July I—had1 —had sent out the invitations to their wedding. He had bought and furnished a house near Tattenham Corner, round which he had ridden many times with success, and there to be ahead of them both a life of happiness and prosperity.