( EQUESTRIAN CHARACTERS remembered ) LIEUTENANT COLONEL
DOUGLAS NORMAN ‘DUGGIE’ STEWART MC DSOC 24 June 1913 - 25 July 1991
With thanks to Clare Du Boulay , and Ian and James Stewart Written by Charley Snowdon
Charley Snowdon continues her journey back down memory lane searching out the equestrian talents and characters of old. Afterall, we only know where we are going if we know where we have been…
he hunted and raced. “Daddy was very pleased when he won the Greys Regimental race, the Sprot Cup”, says Clare. “It would have been a proper steeple chase with very few rules, runners raced from point (steeple or marker board) to point negotiating whatever was in their way.” In 1938 the regiment and their horses (all 600 of them!) were
L
ieutenant Colonel Douglas ‘Duggie’ Stewart, MC DSOC was born in Doonholm, Ayrshire in 1913 and died in Midlem near Selkirk in 1991
As a young man, Duggie was taken under the wing of his racehorse training uncle, Patrick Stewart. “Uncle Pat also wrote two books, Handling Horses and Training the Racehorse”, recalls Clare du Boulay, daughter of Duggie. “He was very modern in his training techniques and ahead of his time.” Aſter attending Rugby and Sandhurst, Duggie joined the cavalry
regiment, The Royal Scots Greys. “Between army commitments, Dad enjoyed playing Polo, Hunter Chasing and Point to Pointing”, says James Stewart, son of Duggie. “Dad attended the Army School of Equitation in Weeden where a more ‘forward seat’ was encouraged and students were required to hunt several times a week.” During this time, Duggie owned a grey called ‘The Lord Mayor’ that
posted to Palestine. Their task being to assist in keeping a lid on tensions between Palestinian Arabs and the influx of Jews moving there to avoid the ghastly events unfolding in Europe. “Dad took Lord Mayor with him”, says James. Following the outbreak of war in 1939, he goes on to say “In 1941 the regiment was mechanised whilst in Syria and the horses became ‘surplus to requirement’ with the introduction of tanks. I’m not sure what happened to the horses, but doubt Lord Mayor was sold to locals and suspect this must have been a very sad day for Dad.” Horses then took a back seat for Duggie until the war came to an end, but whilst pursuing the retreating Germans, Duggie found a stray horse that was all skin and bone and took pity on it. According to Clare, this was then led off the back of his tank before a more suitable mode of transport was found. The horse, that Duggie named ‘Bones’, turned out to be an excep- tional showjumper and the pair went on to win at all the big shows including at Aachen!
Aſter the war Duggie was selected for the ‘Austerity Games’, the Olympics held in London in 1948, where he competed in the Eventing competition. “Back then, if you fell in the cross country you could remount and carry on”, explains Clare. “This resulted in a coil of string being passed through the horse’s bit, through the saddles d rings and then being attached to the rider. I believe this was adopted aſter the 1936 games, when Alex Scott racked up a cricket score of time faults trying to retrieve his horse!” For the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, Duggie
switched from eventing to showjumping (one of only two to ride at Olympic Games in different disciplines, the other being Sir Mark Todd) and competed as part of the winning British team. “Horses and riders were ‘pooled’ back then”, explains Clare. “Horses were kindly provided by extraordinarily generous owners and riders, but which horse was ridden by which rider was down to the selectors. This could be very contentious if the owner/rider was not paired with their horse. The Martin Whiteley Badminton trophy for the highest placed owner/rider and was donated by
58 MAY/JUNE 2019 For the latest news visit
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