BERNARD Parkin has been photographing racehorses for an astonishing 72 years. Born, appropriately perhaps, in 1930, the Chinese Year of the Horse, he was appointed the first official racing photographer to the Queen Mother and later the Queen. He has been a fixture at Cheltenham racecourse for half his extraordinary career. And now, as this year’s festival begins, Parkin, 91 has been recalling how it all began.
His earliest childhood memories are of the well-dressed crowds attending the races in the 1930s, walking to Cheltenham’s Prestbury Park racecourse from the town’s railway station.
“I remember the ladies still wearing long billowing Edwardian dresses and peppery old colonels in their mustard-coloured jodhpurs and carrying swagger sticks,” he says. “Everyone came by train in those days.”
He recounts his stories in his memoir, In the Shadow of Cleeve Hill, which not only tells of his own life but also chronicles the Royal Family’s enduring love affair with racehorses. The book’s title is a reference to the famous hill which overlooks Cheltenham racecourse, and the picturesque Cotswolds location where Parkin has lived all his life.
But it was 1953, the year of the Queen’s coronation, that proved his breakthrough year. He received a commission from The Field magazine to provide them with photographs of the four Cotswold hounds that had won prizes at a recent show, and occasionally snapped members of the Royal Family at racecourses.
COMBINING his photography business with working for an engineering firm in Cheltenham, he slowly built up his reputation. And in 1961, he was offered the chance to become a royal photographer.
“I had taken a picture of a horse owned by the Queen Mother called Double Star, he recalls.
“Her Majesty said she’d like to have the picture. She was delighted with it.
“Then I heard from her private secretary Sir Martin Gilliat who said he wanted to talk to me about me concentrating on taking photographs of all her horses at the races. I didn’t even have to consider it!”
Thus began his long and happy association with the Queen Mother.
“She was like everyone’s
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favourite grandma,” he says. “She was very easy to talk to, very kind, very charming and interested in everything.” Whenever the Queen Mother’s horses were in action, Parkin was there to capture the moment.
“One very special day was in 1974 when Game Spirit, who was her favourite horse at the time, ran in the Gold Cup and came third.” The Queen Mother loved her jump racing, describing it as “one of the real sports that’s left to us”, but given the risks involved to both horse and riders there were inevitably some sad moments too. “When Game Spirit died at Newbury was one of the worst,” Parkin remembers. “Everyone was in tears.”
In 1982, a month-long exhibition of Parkin’s work was held at the Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum and the photographer asked the Queen Mother if she could lend him the book he had compiled for her of all her winners to date.
“Not only did she say, ‘Yes, of course’, she also insisted that she‘d have a new set of colours especially made. She took great interest in the exhibition,” Parkin says.
He was told that whenever he came to London, he should ring her home, Clarence House, beforehand, and, if convenient, join her for drinks. “It was never inconvenient,” he chuckles.
On one occasion though, he
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had to break with royal protocol. “It was at Cheltenham in 1982 after the Gold Cup. I got an invite up to the royal box where it was just me and the Queen Mother. You are not supposed to go until you are dismissed. But after a while I had to say to her, ‘I really must go’. I had a commission to photograph a horse in the next race.”
In 1993, Parkin’s position as the Queen Mother’s racing photographer was formalised with the granting of a royal warrant.
“You have to supply goods to the royal household for at least five years out of seven, they have to be of top quality and there has to be a consistent flow of them.
“The Lord Chamberlain puts it forward and the Monarch decides.”
To celebrate her 100th birthday in the year 2000, the Queen Mother was presented at Cheltenham with a special montage of Parkin’s photographs of her horses and her jockeys, going back over five decades. “It was a lovely occasion and she was very happy,” he says.
When the Queen Mother died in March 2002, Parkin attended the funeral at Westminster Abbey. After that, he became the official racing photographer to the Queen. “One of the best days was undoubtedly at Royal Ascot in 2013 when The Queen won the Gold Cup with Estimate.”
He has also photographed Prince Charles and Princess Anne, when they rode in races. “Princess Anne excelled in show jumping but also took up race-riding. She once asked me to photograph her when she was riding out at trainer David Nicholson’s. I had just one shot, but it was a good photograph and she was pleased with it.”
Parkin also took the famous picture of the mud-splattered Princess after a race at Cheltenham which caused hilarity on the