A sporting relation

Samuel Mann (1866-1917) – A successful sportsman ancestor

Finding the occupation of my 3 x Great-Uncle recorded on a number of census returns as ex-jockey & trainer was intriguing. Learning that he engaged in this occupation in France definitely made me want to learn more.

Samuel MANN was born on 6^th December 1866 at Great Witley, Worcestershire, to Thomas and Ann Randle (nee Winwood) Mann. The family were still living in Great Witley in 1871. It is not clear where Samuel MANN was living and what he was doing after 1871, with no identifiable record found in the 1881 census when he would have been 14yo. The occupation of Samuel’s father Thomas was recorded in various records as groom or horse breaker. It is possible that Samuel was also employed in similar employment in his younger years or at least developed an affinity for horses from his father’s activities.

How and when he became a race-jockey and then travelled to France to pursue this career is unknown. However, by 1888 Samuel MANN was riding as a jockey in France; a French newspaper published a list of jockeys able to ride in scheduled races in France at the beginning of every year and Samuel MANN’s name was included from 1888 to 1895. During this period Samuel MANN also worked as a horse trainer in France in the area of Chantilly, which is home to the largest racehorse training community the country.

According to a British sporting newspaper in 1891, S Mann [probably Samuel MANN] was the most successful jockey for the year in France, riding 95 winners; also reporting a total of 32 winners the previous year. The following year the same newspaper reported that S Mann had significant success at the Easter Sunday steeplechase meet at Auteuil, and a French newspaper reported three wins and a third at that meeting for S. Mann; the wins included riding M. Camille Blanc’s ‘Surcouf’ in one of the major races. Two weeks later (3^rd June 1892), also at Auteuil, the same French newspaper reported further success for S Mann, including winning the Grande Course de Haies [a hurdles race] on Le Gourzy, owned by Comte J. de Ganay.

In early January 1895 a French newspaper reported that ‘Trainer-jockey Samuel Mann was reportedly about to leave France to settle in England’. Then a month later the same newspaper (dated 4^th Feb 1895) reported that, ‘Mr. Marin de Saint-Andre, the trainer of Mr. Robert Lebaudy, had rented the establishment of Samuel Mann, the trainer-jockey of the Count of Bire, in La Morlaye’. La Morlaye is a few kilometres south of Chantilly.

Samuel Mann was back in England living at Great Witley once more in 1895 and he married Emily Grandfield at Worcester on 19^th Feb 1898; his occupation was listed on the marriage certificate as ‘Gentleman’. In an apparent indication of the esteem in which Samuel Mann was held within French horse-racing his marriage was reported in French newspapers in early March 1898; the report mentioning that ‘Samuel Mann was the former jockey for Messrs. De Ganay and Camille Blanc, who achieved such brilliant successes with Le Gourzy, Medyn and Surcouf’. Best wishes were extended for his future happiness.

At the censuses of 1901 and 1911 the family was living at North Claines, Droitwich, Worcestershire, and at Tenbury, Boraston, Shropshire, respectively. In both of those census returns he listed his occupation as ‘Ex-jockey’ and ‘trainer’.

He died on 8^th Nov 1917 at Boraston, Shropshire, leaving an estate valued at around £2900. A short obituary notice was published in the ‘Sporting Items’ columns of the Evening Despatch, Birmingham, dated 9^th Nov; it stated ‘Mr. S. Mann, who was well known as a steeplechase jockey and trainer at Chantilly, died yesterday at Boraston, Tenbury Wells.’