| Richard Meade OBE | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Richard Meade c. 1974 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Richard John Hannay Meade | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality |  United Kingdom | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Eventing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1938-12-04)4 December 1938 Chepstow,Monmouthshire, Wales | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 8 January 2015(2015-01-08) (aged 76) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Richard John Hannay Meade,OBE (4 December 1938 – 8 January 2015) was Britain's most successful maleequestrian at the Olympics. He was a tripleOlympic gold medallist and the first British rider to win an individual Olympic title.[1] He also won fiveWorld Championship medals, including team golds in 1970 and 1982.
Meade was born inChepstow,Monmouthshire,Wales. His parents, John and Phyllis (née Watts) were joint masters of the Curre Hounds atItton and set up Britain's firstConnemara stud. He was educated atLancing College andMagdalene College, Cambridge, where he read Engineering and was a member of theHawks' Club. He served in the11th Hussars and briefly worked in theCity of London before embarking on a life committed to the equestrian sphere.[1]
Throughout hiseventing career Meade was the outstanding rider of his time and the linchpin of British teams for 21 years. In 1964, he won theBurghley Horse Trials on Barberry. Meade was a member of Britain'sgold medal winning team at both the1968 and1972 Summer Olympics, and also won the individual gold in 1972. He also competed in the1964 and1976 Olympics, as well as the substitute competition in Fontainebleau during thepartial boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Meade also won twoWorld Championship gold medals and three silver medals, as well as threeEuropean Championship gold medals and two bronze medals. He twice won theBadminton Horse Trials, in 1970 on The Poacher and in 1982 on Speculator III.
Following theMunich massacre during the 1972 Olympic games, Meade was flown back to London to read a lesson at the memorial service for the victims. He then returned to carry theunion flag during theclosing ceremony of the games.
Meade excelled at the major events and championships; in four Olympic games he never finished out of the top eight places. When he retired he was 6th in the list of themost successful British Olympians of all time across all sports; he is currently equal 11th.Despite winning both the team gold and the individual gold medals at Munich in 1972, he felt that his greatest Olympic memory was four years earlier atMexico where Britain won the team gold in very difficult conditions after intense rainfall. He felt his best performance was at the 1976Montreal games riding Jacob Jones, who was a relatively cautious horse; they finished 4th individually.
He was votedBBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year in 1972. The same year he came third in theBBC Sports Personality of the Year and was a member of theTeam of the Year.
In 1974 he was appointed anOBE for services to sport. In 1996 he was inducted into theWelsh Sports Hall of Fame.
After his retirement from competing, Meade was a dedicated contributor to the equestrian world. He served on theBritish Horse Society’s council and was chairman of the British Horse Foundation. He was also formerly president of theBritish Equestrian Federation, a member of theInternational Equestrian Federation’s (FEI) Eventing Committee and then a bureau member and chairman of its Northern European Group of Nations. He served on the sport's governing body in the UK (nowBritish Eventing) continuously for over 30 years until after its reorganisation in 1996 when he was made a vice president.
He was an FEI judge and course designer, roles that took him all over the world. He was also a well-respected judge ofshow horses. Latterly, Meade worked as an equestrianexpert witness and continued to train riders from his home inSouth Gloucestershire.
In 2001, theRSPCA expelled Meade for organising a campaign to encourage supporters offox hunting to join so as to put pressure on the society to change its policy.[2]
Around 1970 Meade was briefly linked toPrincess Anne.[3] In 1977 he married Angela Dorothy Farquhar. In 1979 they had a son, Charles, who died aged seven months. They had three more children: James (b. 1981),Harry (b. 1983), and Lucy (b. 1985).
On 14 September 2013, his son, James Meade, married Lady Laura Marsham, daughter ofJulian Charles Marsham, 8th Earl of Romney, atSt Nicholas' Church inGayton, Norfolk.[4]Prince William, Duke of Cambridge,Prince Harry, andPippa Middleton were in attendance at the wedding.[5] James is godfather toPrincess Charlotte of Wales,[6] and Lady Laura is godmother toPrince Louis of Wales.[7]
His younger sonHarry, whom Richard greatly supported, is himself a renowned event rider who has competed for Great Britain at the world championships.[8]
Meade died on 8 January 2015, after receiving treatment for cancer. He was 76.[9][10]
In November 2024, Meade's widow announced that medals won by Meade at the 1972 Munich Games were stolen, following aburglary at their property nearMarshfield,South Gloucestershire.[11]
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