Sir John Dugdale Astley, 3rd Bt

Sitter in 6 portraits
From 1848 to 1859 he was in the Army, serving in the Crimean War and retiring as a Lieutenant-Colonel. In 1858, while on honeymoon, he won £1,500 in a bet on the Liverpool cup. He quit the army the following year, and thereafter devoted himself to his passion, sport, especially horse racing. During the lifetime of his father-in-law, who had a horror of the turf, Astley raced under the borrowed name of Mr S. Thellusson. He was a popular figure in the sporting community, known familiarly as 'The Mate', and for winning and losing large sums of money. A member of the Jockey Club, he took an interest in many aspects of horse racing. He succeeded to the baronetcy in 1873 and was an MP from 1874 to 1880.