{{Short description|British jump jockey and horse trainer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Gay Kindersley | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = 2 June 1930 | birth_place = | death_date = {{Death date and age|2011|04|21|1930|06|02|df=y}} | death_place = | education = Eton | alma_mater = Christ Church, Oxford | occupation = champion amateur jump jockey and horse trainer | known_for = | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Margaret "Magsie" Wakefield|1956|1976}} * {{marriage|Philippa Harper|1976}} }} | children = 6 | parents = Hon. Philip Kindersley<br /> Oonagh Guinness | relatives = Robert Kindersley, 1st Baron Kindersley (grandfather)<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do;jsessionid=B047B7A14108C21ED88861887D6DB59F?articleId=a3685 |title=Guinness, Oonagh |last=Hourican |first=Bridget |website=Dictionary of Irish Biography |publisher=Cambridge University Press |access-date=29 December 2017}}</ref> | website = }}
'''Gay Kindersley''' (2 June 1930 – 21 April 2011) was a British champion amateur jump jockey, horse trainer and a "drinker, gambler and serial womaniser".<ref name="telegraph.co.uk">{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/sport-obituaries/8484079/Gay-Kindersley.html|title=Gay Kindersley|website=The Telegraph|access-date=3 December 2017|date=29 April 2011 }}</ref>
==Early life== Gay Kindersley was born on 2 June 1930, the son of the Hon. Philip Kindersley, and his wife Oonagh Guinness, and grandson of Robert Kindersley, 1st Baron Kindersley.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/> He was educated at Eton, followed by Christ Church, Oxford, where he remained for only two terms.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/>
==Career== After Oxford, Kindersley joined the 7th Hussars, and served in Germany.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/> At the age of 21, he announced that he wanted to get married, so his family sent him to Canada, where he worked as an oil rig "roughneck", and as a Calgary Stampede rodeo competitor.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/>
On his return to the UK, he continued as an amateur jockey, and in the 1959–60 season, won the amateur jockeys' championship with 22 winners from 100 rides, all but five of the 100 on his own horses.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/>
Kindersley broke his back at Stratford in 1955, and again at Hurst Park in 1962, after which his doctor told him to stop riding; he ignored the advice, and continued.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/> He retired as a National Hunt jockey in 1965, and as a flat racing jockey in 1969.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/>
Before he retired, he started work as a trainer at East Garston. He always wanted to win the Grand National, and in 1984 his horse Earthstopper came fifth but collapsed afterwards.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/>
==Personal life== Kindersley was married twice,<ref name="independent.ie">{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.ie/world-news/gay-kindersley-26730483.html|title=Gay Kindersley |website=independent.ie|date=8 May 2011 |access-date=3 December 2017}}</ref> firstly in 1956 to Margaret "Magsie" Diana, daughter of the actor Hugh Wakefield,<ref>Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th ed., vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 2170</ref> for nearly 20 years.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/><ref name="independent.ie"/> They had two sons and two daughters, including the novelist Tania Kindersley.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/> He was then married to Philippa Harper, from 1976 until his death.<ref name="independent.ie"/> They had two sons.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/>
His friends included Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Peter O'Toole, Albert Finney, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and Lord Oaksey.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/> His lovers included Ann, Marchioness of Queensberry, and zither player Shirley Abicair. He admitted, "I've got this infidelity thing, I've always had to be chasing."<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/>
His "engaging naivety" shows in an incident at London's Savoy Hotel in 1985 at a lunch for the Australian cricket team, when he introduced himself and his guest Graham Lord with the words, "Hallo, folks, I'm Gay and this is my friend Graham". One of the cricketers said, "Jeez! Backs to the wall, mate".<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/> Recounting the story later, Kindersley was "completely bewildered when everyone roared with laughter".<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/>
Kindersley died on 21 April 2011, aged 80, and was survived by four of his children from his first marriage, both from his second, and by both his wives.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/> A biography, ''Flings Over Fences'', was written by Robin Rhoderick-Jones and published by Quiller Press in 1997.
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kindersley, Gay}} Category:1930 births Category:2011 deaths Category:British jockeys Category:British racehorse trainers Category:People educated at Eton College Category:Guinness family Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Gay