Anthony St Leger (soldier)
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Major General Anthony St Leger (1731/32 - 19th April 1786) was a successful soldier, a Member of Parliament for Grimsby, and the founder of the St. Leger Stakes horse race.
Born into an Anglo-Irish family of Norman stock, he was educated at Eton College and Peterhouse, Cambridge, before embarking on a career in the army.
In 1761, St Leger married a Yorkshire woman, Margaret Wombwell. That same year he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the 124th Regiment of Foot, but a year later the regiment disbanded, and St Leger took on the Park Hill estate in Firbeck, where he later bred and raced horses.
From 1768-1774, St Leger sat as MP for Grimsby. Two years after leaving the Commons, and with the assistance of Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, he established a two-mile race for 3-year-old horses, on the Cantley Common in Doncaster. This was to become the St. Leger Stakes.
In 1779, St Leger re-entered the army as Colonel of the 86th Regiment of Foot. He subsequently achieved the rank of Brigadier General, before serving a period as the Governor of Saint Lucia. His last posting was in Ireland, by which time he was a Major General.
St Leger died on 19th April, 1786. He was buried in St Ann's Church, Dublin.
In addition to giving his name to the St Leger Stakes, the St Leger Arms public house in Laughton en le Morthen (two miles up the road from the Park Hill estate) is also named after Anthony St Leger.