Sir Rupert Mackeson, 2nd Baronet

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Sir Rupert Mackeson, 2nd Baronet (born 16 November 1941) is a British author, previously a soldier and smuggler.

Contents

[edit] Background and Education

Mackeson is the son of Sir Harry Mackeson, 1st Baronet, and his wife Alethea Cecil Chetwynd-Talbot. His grandfather Henry Mackeson was the founder of the Mackeson brewery.

He was educated at Harrow School, Trinity College, Dublin and Sandhurst.

[edit] Career

After serving four years in the Royal Horse Guards, Mackeson went into the City of London. There he was connected with Mafia activities and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He fled to Rhodesia and became a smuggler. After Ian Smith agreed to return him to the UK, he was arrested but escaped from a British Airways airliner while it was on the ground in South Africa.

Since returning to England in the 1990s, Mackeson has become a writer of books about racing, writing under his own name and also as Rupert Collens. Bet Like a Man (2001) is a novel about the cloning of a Derby winner. He also writes for the Racing Post and runs a mobile bookshop and art gallery which operates on British racecourses.

[edit] Books as Rupert Mackeson

  • Great Racing Gambles and Frauds
  • Flat Racing Scams and Scandals (Metro Publishing, 2004) ISBN 9781843580423
  • Bet Like a Man (Eye Ltd, Bridgnorth, 2001) ISBN 1903070139


[edit] Books as Rupert Collens

  • 50 Cheltenham Gold Cups
  • Cecil Aldin's Dogs and Hounds
  • 25 Legal Luminaries from Vanity Fair
  • Snaffles: His Life and Works (with John Welcome)
  • Snaffles on Racing and Point to Pointing (with John Welcome)
  • Snaffles on Hunting (with John Welcome)

[edit] Trivia

  • In 1979, a Scotland Yard spokesman said "Sir Rupert Mackeson is number seven on the ten most wanted men list. He has caused us more trouble than anyone other than Ronnie Biggs."
  • In 2003, the Daily Telegraph was forced to publish a grovelling apology to Mackeson after printing an untrue story about a painting by Alfred Munnings and an alleged incident on Epsom racecourse.
  • He has commented on his troubles in the 1970s - "I didn't particularly want to be found swinging from Blackfriars Bridge so I disappeared to Africa. Before I do write my autobiography, I still need one person from that operation to die so I can name names."

[edit] References


Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Harry Mackeson		 Baronet
(of Hythe)
1964–present		 Succeeded by
Incumbent