PROFESSIONAL GAMBLER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 April 1939, Page 7

PROFESSIONAL GAMBLER

WINS £500,000 IN 20 YEARS. TAUGHT BY HIS MOTHER. Frederick Parker, a professional gambler who won more than £500,000 in twenty years, was taught how to bet by his mother. He died in Northampton recently, aged 67, He lost half of the £500,000 again in betting and spent most of what was left in luxury living. Parker was wartime mayor of Northampton. He was once chairman of Northampton Football Club, chairman of the Victoria Club, London, and was a member of Tattersall’s Committee. Mr W. A. Clayton, his secretary for 40 years, and now 72 yeai-s of age, said to an interviewer: “They used to call him the biggest professional gambler on the turf. But he was no gambler in the real sense of the term. His money went on as near a cert as a horse can be. He would take huge commissions from prominent owners —£20,000 to £30,000 in a day—and place his own personal bets accordingly. t “USED HIS HEAD.” “He always betted on the finest information. He used his head, kepi cool, and never blinked when he lost. He made betting a business. It kept us busy 14 hours a day sometimes. He’d have only four hours in bed and spend the other six in festivity and good fellowship.” Parker was only, ten when his father, a printer turned prosperous publican, died, and left enough money for Fred to go to Waterloo College and Northampton Grammar School. Fred’s mother increased her income by careful betting on the turf. At 17 he had learned her methods. Soon he was teaching her. Mr Clayton went on: “I became his secretary about 1900. He was doing so well that he stood for election as a Northampton town councillor and got in with a 242 majority. He was on the council 31 years, but horse.racing kept him out of the town most of the season each year. “His big racing days were all prewar, though I remember him standing in the rain at Newmarket about 1922 just after losing £lOOO on a 20 —1 chance. I forget the horse, and so did he pretty quickly. His face didn't change. In a good year he'd win £lOO,OOO and maybe lose half that. If his profit was less than £15,000 it was a bad year.

"I had a wonderful 40 years with him. We went to Nice, Longchamp (Paris) and Ostend, living in style at the grandest hotels, eating the finest food, drinking glorious wines. “One of his pals was Charles (Boyo) Beattie, the backer. A lot of fuss was made about Beattie’s career, but his biggest bets were chicken-feed compared with Mr Parker’s.” Beattie died on the Riviera in 1932 worth £lBO,OOO. “Perhaps Mr Parker’s estate may not be as big or any bigger,” said Mr Clayton, “but he was a terrific spender. CHAMPAGNE PARTIES. “Apart from the cost of racing—jockey’s fees, entrance fees, the upkeep of the horses—there were champagne parties at his house to his political friends and jaunts into town when he would take six or seven friends with him and treat them all evening. His horses cost him thousands.” In 1910 he stood for Parliament as Conservative candidate for Northampton, but was defeated. His wife died in 1928. His daughter Madge is the wife of Mr William Griggs, of Newmarket, England. Their son Billy is an apprentice jockey.