#14460, Robert Fraser WATSON

Tuberculosis forced him to move to Kenya. He became engaged to Beryl Clutterbuck (later Beryl Markham), racehorse trainer and pioneer aviator who became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic from east to west. Luckily (it is generally thought) the engagement was cancelled. Markham had a very public affair with Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, son of King George V.

Robert was keen on flying and bought in 1935 an Avro 643 Cadet Mk.II bi-plane which he sold two years later to the Spanish Republican Air Force. In 1948 at Newmarket he sold his 7-year-old brood mare, Ferry Pool for 18,000 guineas, a record price in England.