John Rickman

John Rickman (28 May 1913 – 13 October 1997) was a British journalist, broadcaster and author. The majority of his career was as a print journalist initially for the Bristol Evening News and then later with the Daily Mail and The Daily Sketch. He was a racing tipster, often featuring to the top of the unofficial Sporting Life naps table, a competition held between journalists to select winners. A broadcaster with London Weekend Television's World of Sport for 23 years, he was the first person to introduce the sport of horse racing on an independent television channel in the UK and is considered one of the pioneer television broadcasters of that sport. Rickman penned several books during his career including Homes Of Sport (1952) and Eight Flat Racing Stables (1979). Early years John Eric Carter Rickman was born in Wimbledon, the elder son of Eric Carter, a writer and racing correspondence with The Daily Mail and the Evening Standard. His family lore was steeped in the training and racing of horses. His maternal grandfather William Carter was the son of Elijah Carter, one-time trainer to the King Victor Emmanuel of Italy. His maternal grandmother was the daughter of another successful 19th century racehorse trainer Tom Jennings, the trainer of French bred Gladiateur, winner of the English Triple Crown in 1865. He was educated at Feltonfleet School near the family home in Cobham before attending Haileybury College between 1927 and 1931, when he began an apprenticeship as a journalist with the Bristol Evening World, one of a chain of evening newspapers owned by Northcliffe Newspapers. Career Rickman transferred to the Evening News Sports Dept., covering local rugby, cricket, greyhound racing and horse racing at Cheltenham and Bath later moving to the sister paper the Bristol Echo and Times . Rickman returned to Surrey in 1932 to recover from a lung illness and in 1934 joined the Daily Mail as a junior reporter covering a variety of stories and becoming the newpaper's Zoo correspondence. A reservist with the Gloucestershire Regiment Rickman arrived in France six days after the Normandy landings had occurred and spent the remainder of the War in France and Belgium.