Anthony St Leger

Who was Anthony St Leger?

Major-General Anthony St Leger was a successful soldier, a Member of Parliament for Grimsby, and the founder of the St. Leger Stakes horse race.

Born in February 1731 at Grangemellon, County Kildare, Ireland, the fourth son of Sir John St Leger who was a judge of the Irish exchequer, and his second wife, Levinia, daughter of Kingsmill Pennefather of Cashel, co. Tipperary. He was educated at Eton College. He attended Peterhouse, Cambridge before embarking on a career in the army.

In 1761, St Leger married a Yorkshire woman, Margaret Wombwell. That same year he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the 124th Regiment of Foot, but a year later the regiment disbanded, and St Leger took on the Park Hill estate in Firbeck, where he later bred and raced horses.

From 1768 to 1774, St Leger sat as MP for Grimsby. Two years after leaving the Commons, and with the assistance of Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, he established a two-mile race for 3-year-old horses, on the Cantley Common in Doncaster. This was to become the St. Leger Stakes.

In 1779, St Leger re-entered the army as Colonel of the 86th Regiment of Foot.