Roger Mortimer

Who is Roger Mortimer?

Major Roger Francis Mortimer, was an English horse-racing correspondent, Coldstream Guards officer, prisoner of war, and author.

Son of Haliburton Stanley Mortimer, of 11 Cadogan Gardens, Chelsea, by Dorothy Blackwell, of Crosse & Blackwell, he was educated at Ludgrove, Eton and Sandhurst, and joined the Coldstream Guards in 1930. He was a Captain at Dunkirk but was captured unconscious, all his men having been killed. Sir Frederick Vernon Corfield, QC, PC, and Freddy Burnaby-Atkins were among his friends made as a prisoner of war. He left the army in 1947 having post-war served in Trieste, and took an appointment at Raceform.

For 29 years, from 1947-1975, he was the Sunday Times' racing correspondent. He was succeeded by Brough Scott. He was also The Tote's PR and a racing reporter for BBC radio 2.

In 1947 Mortimer married Cynthia Sydney Denison-Pender, a niece of the 1st Lord Pender and granddaughter of Sir John Denison Denison-Pender, GBE, KCMG. Cynthia's sister Pamela had married General Sir Kenneth Thomas Darling, GBE, KCB, DSO, in 1941.