Sir Piers Henry George Bengough, KCVO (1929-2005)
Michael Rhodes
<<Daily Telegraph 23 Apr, 2005>>
Sir Piers Bengough, who died on April 18 aged 75, was a cavalry officer
and noted amateur rider before serving as the Queen's representative at
Ascot racecourse for 15 years.
Having taken over as "Her Majesty's Representative" (the official
title) in 1982 from the Marquess of Abergavenny, Bengough was
responsible for organising race days at Ascot throughout the year - but
most notably during Royal Ascot.
A tall, mustachioed man of military bearing, it was ultimately he that
decided who would, and who would not, be admitted to the Royal
Enclosure. There is said to be a "black book" at the Ascot Office
containing the names of jailbirds and other undesirables. (When the
first Representative, Viscount Churchill, took over in 1901 he put all
applications into one of three trays on his desk: "Certainly",
"Perhaps" and "Certainly Not".)
For social alpinists, entry to the Royal Enclosure is the apex,
sometimes requiring the most tortuous techniques; Bengough once
received the following letter: "Dear Sir Piers, I have been to see a
clairvoyant who told me that my husband would die within a year. This,
then, is our last chance to realise our ambition to be admitted to the
Royal Enclosure at Ascot. Could you send us some badges?" The answer
was no. Bengough once refused entry to the actress Joan Collins because
she was wearing someone else's badge.
He also enforced the dress code; liaised with caterers; and consulted
the police over problems such as crowd control and security. Not least,
he had to make sure that everything went smoothly for Ascot's owner,
the Queen, when she attended the races.
A critical aspect of his job at Royal Ascot was to ensure that the
racing itself remained of the highest quality; the event does not
accept sponsorship, and prize money must be sufficient to continue to
attract the best horses.
Bengough was conscientious and hard-working, both relishing his job and
regarding it as a great honour. He believed that, above all, racing
should be fun; and although he was a stickler for tradition, this was
less because he was hidebound than because he saw tradition as an asset
to be exploited.
When it came to dress in the Royal Enclosure, Bengough tried to hold
the line in an era when both men and women made attempts to breach it.
Occasionally he would take advice from his wife, Bridget, or from the
girls who staffed his office. For example, while women in trousers
continued to be frowned upon, he was persuaded to make an exception for
culottes. Confronted with the tricky problem of outlandish ladies'
hats, he continued to enforce the rule that a hat should cover the
crown of the head. Ridiculous publicity-seekers - such as, on one
occasion, would-be entrants got up to look like giraffes - were given
short shrift.
When he first took over at Ascot, Bengough learned that the electric
wiring at the course was "unsafe to the point of imminent disaster", a
problem which took seven years to correct. Then the concrete beams in
the grandstand had to be replaced (when he told the Queen, she replied:
"Thanks for your letter. It contains just the sort of news I don't want
to hear"). After the firm hired to do the work went bust, Bengough
called in Wimpeys, later recalling: "Their chairman said, 'For you, Sir
Piers - and, of course, for the Queen - we'll get it done'. He got the
precedence a little wrong, but the work was good."
Away from Royal Ascot, Bengough helped to establish the highly
successful Festival of British Racing, held at the course every
September. He called it "Britain's answer to the Breeders' Cup".
On his retirement in 1997, Bengough was presented with four silver
birds as dinner-table ornaments by the Ascot Authority and given a
magnum of Champagne by Sir Peter O'Sullevan. He was succeeded as Her
Majesty's Representative by the present (12th) Duke of Devonshire.
Piers Henry George Bengough, whose father served in the Flying Corps in
the First World War, was born on May 24 1929. After leaving Eton he was
commissioned into the 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own) in
1948. He was commander of the Royal Hussars (PWO) from 1971 to 1973,
when he retired from the Army to set up a small stud farm in
Herefordshire.
As an amateur jockey in his youth, Bengough won some 30 races on his
own horses, including the Grand Military Gold Cup four times - he won
aboard Charles Dickens three years running (1970-72); the next year, to
his considerable annoyance, he was beaten into second place by his
regimental doctor. He rode four times in the Grand National on April
Rose, but completed the course only once, in 1965, when he finished
eleventh.
Much of Bengough's Army career was spent in Germany, where he trained
11 horses, racing them at Hanover, Dusseldorf and Dortmund.
In 1965 he was elected a member of the Jockey Club, beginning a long
career in racing administration. He was a Steward from 1974 to 1977 and
then from 1990 to 1992, when he chaired the disciplinary committee.
Bengough was a member of the Horserace Betting Levy Board from 1978 to
1981; a director of the Cheltenham Steeplechase Co (1977-90), of
Hereford racecourse (1974-2001) and of Ludlow race club from 1979. He
was chairman of the Compensation Fund for Jockeys from 1981 to 1989.
He was a member of Her Majesty's Body Guard of the Honourable Corps of
Gentlemen-at-Arms (1981-99), a ceremonial bodyguard (founded in 1509 by
Henry VIII) which attends the Queen at various state occasions; he was
its Standard Bearer from 1997 to 1999. He was also a Deputy Lieutenant
of Hereford and Worcester in 1987, and was on the board of the Hereford
Cathedral Perpetual Trust.
Piers Bengough was appointed OBE in 1973 and KCVO in 1986.
He married, in 1952, Bridget Adams, who won the International Figure
Skating Championships in 1949. They had two sons.