LIEUT.-COLONEL JOHN WATKINS YARDLEY 



Only son of the late Mr. John Yardley of Chesterfield 

 Lodge, Lichfield, known throughout the country as a fine 

 horseman, shot, fisherman, and owner of greyhounds, by his 

 wife Alice, daughter of M. Chappe' de Leonval, a member of 

 the old French nobility driven from home during the Revolution, 

 the subject of our memoir was born on the 17th of July, 1858, 

 and received his education at Retford and Trinity College, 

 Cambridge, where he took his Bachelor's degree, going thence 

 to Sandhurst. Two years after, he joined the 6th Inniskillen 

 Dragoons, in which gallant regiment he saw a considerable 

 amount of service, first in the Bechuanaland expedition (1884- 

 1885), Zululand (1888), and finally in South Africa (1890-1891), 

 where, previous to being severely wounded, he greatly dis- 

 tinguished himself, receiving the medal with five clasps, besides 

 being mentioned in Despatches. It was soon after joining 

 the Inniskillen Dragoons, where he was familiarly known as 

 *' The Curate," when the regiment went to South Africa in 

 1883, that Captain Yardley, as he was then, commenced his 

 race-riding career; in which year, out of eleven mounts, he 

 won eight, nearly all over a country. In 1885 he won eight 

 out of nineteen, in 1886 nineteen out of forty, in 1887 

 sixteen out of thirty-three, and in 1888 six out of eighteen 

 (a broken arm and shoulder preventing any more that year). 



In June, 1889, after fourteen mounts, of which seven were 

 winners, a leg badly broken in several places stopped further 

 riding for that year. 



Most of this riding was done in Natal, but some of it 

 also in Cape Colony and other parts of South Africa. At one 



331 



