"The Literary Mate": Astley as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, July 1894

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Dugdale Astley, 3rd Baronet (19 February 1828 – 10 October 1894) was an English soldier and sportsman.

Life

He was the son of the 2nd Baronet (created 1821) Sir Francis Dugdale Astley and wife Emma Dorothea Lethbridge, and a descendant of Lord Astley.[1] S From 1848 to 1859, he was in the Scots Fusilier Guards, serving in the Crimean War and retiring as a Lieutenant-Colonel.[1]

On 22 May 1858, he married an heiress, Eleanor Blanche Mary Corbett, of Elsham Hall, North Lincolnshire. Eleanor (died 7 June 1897) was the daughter of Thomas George Corbett (died 5 July 1868) and wife (married 15 December 1837) Lady Mary Noel Beauclerk (28 December 1810 – 29 November 1850), daughter of the 8th Duke of St Albans. He thereafter devoted himself to sports including horse racing, boxing and pedestrianism. He was a popular figure at horse race meetings, known familiarly as "the Mate", and for winning and losing large sums of money.[1] Two famous jockeys that rode regularly for him were George Fordham and Charlie Wood.[2]

He succeeded to the baronetcy in 1873. From 1874 to 1880 he was the Conservative Member of Parliament for North Lincolnshire,[1] like his father in law before him.

Just before his death in October 1894, he published entertaining reminiscences under the title of Fifty Years of My Life.[1] This contains the first recorded appearance of the phrase "like a duck to water" – I always took to shooting like a duck to water.

His descendants include Samantha Cameron, wife of former prime minister David Cameron.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Astley, Sir John Dugdale". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 793.
  2. ↑ Scott, Alexander (1900). "Chapter XV". Turf Memories of Sixty Years. London: Hutchinson & Co. p. 185.

Further reading

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