John Rickman (28 May 1913 – 13 October 1997) was a British journalist, broadcaster and author. The majority of his career was as a print racing journalist initially for the Bristol Evening News and then later with theDaily Mail andThe Daily Sketch. He was a racingtipster, often featuring to the top of the unofficialSporting Life naps table, a competition held between journalists to select winners. A broadcaster withLondon Weekend Television'sWorld of Sport for 23 years, he was the first person to introduce the sport ofhorse racing on an independent television channel in the UK and is considered one of the pioneer television broadcasters of that sport.^[1] Rickman penned several books during his career includingHomes Of Sport (1952) andEight Flat Racing Stables (1979).^[2]

John Eric Carter Rickman was born inWimbledon, the elder son of Eric Rickman, a writer and racing correspondence withThe Daily Mail and theEvening Standard.^[3] 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 KingVictor Emmanuel of Italy.^[4] His maternal grandmother was the daughter of another successful 19th century racehorse trainer Tom Jennings, the trainer of French bredGladiateur, winner of theEnglish Triple Crown in 1865.^[5] He was educated atFeltonfleet School near the family home in Cobham before attendingHaileybury College between 1927 and 1931, when he began an apprenticeship as a journalist with theBristol Evening World, one of a chain of evening newspapers owned byNorthcliffe Newspapers.^[3]

Rickman transferred to theEvening News Sports Dept., covering local rugby, cricket, greyhound racing and horse racing atCheltenham andBath, later moving to the sister paper theBristol Echo and Times .^[3] Rickman returned to Surrey in 1932 to recover from a lung illness and in 1934 joined theDaily Mail as a junior reporter covering a variety of stories and becoming the newspaper's Zoo correspondent. A reservist with theGloucestershire Regiment^[3] Rickman arrived inFrance six days after theNormandy landings had occurred and spent the remainder of the War in France and Belgium.^[3]

Returning to theDaily Mail on demobilisation in 1946 he accepted the post ofDalrymple, theDaily Mail's second racing correspondent. His father Eric returned to his post ofRobin Goodfellow, thenom-de- plume for the chief racing correspondent and on his father's retirement in 1949 he succeeded his father in the post. The role of chief tipsterRobin Goodfellow was offered to Arthur Salter in 1959 a decision that was not to Rickman's liking and he moved to theDaily Sketch in 1961 asGimcrack to pursue a similar role. His autobiography describes his delight when he selected an outsiderAyala to win the 1963Grand National.^[3] The demise of theDaily Sketch, officially it was merged with the new tabloidDaily Mail in 1971, resulted in Rickman returning to his former employers where he remained until the late 1970s.^[2]

In the early 1950'sBBC racing was riding high with racing journalists that included Clive Graham andPeter O'Sullevan, both of the rivalDaily Express, fronting the burgeoning coverage.^[6] When Graham was unavailable Rickman began to cover his role as a paddock correspondent gaining some experience that proved very helpful whenIndependent Television launched in 1955. Rickman became the first frontman for the new channel's racing coverage that began in 1956 maintaining the role until his retirement in 1978 whenJohn Oaksey replaced him.^[3] In front of the camera Rickman offered a reassuring courteous presence invariably greeting the audience with an extravagant doffing of histrilby hat.^[2]

Rickman married Margaret (Peggy) Law in 1939^[7] moving toFernhurst, West Sussex in theLod valley after the War. He died on 13 October 1997.

• Rickman, John (1990),Old Tom and Young Tom, Allborough Press, Cambridge, England^[8]

• Rickman, John (1952),Horse Racing (Homes of Sport), Peter Garnett, UK^[9]
• Rickman, John (1979),Eight Flat-Racing Stables, Heinemann 978-0434637102^[10]
• Rickman, John (1998),The Land of Lod, Peggy Rickman, Midhurst, England^[11]
• Cosgrove, Tom (editor) (1973),William Hill Racing Yearbook 1973, The Queen Anne Press, London, UK^[12]

• 1913 births
• 1997 deaths
• British horse racing writers
• British journalists
• British writers
• People educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College
• People from Fernhurst
• Military personnel from the London Borough of Merton
• British Army personnel of World War II
• Gloucestershire Regiment soldiers
• People from Wimbledon, London

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