James Templer

Major General James Templer was born in Exeter in 1936 and attended the Charterhouse public school in Surrey before joining the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. By 1955 Templer had been commissioned into the Royal Artillery. A keen sportsman, he was the British champion in cross-country skiing in 1958, earning himself a place on Great Britain’s Winter Olympic team. He turned this down, however, focusing on equestrian riding with the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery. In 1961 he bought his first horse, M’Lord Connolly, with them becoming the European individual eventing champions in 1962.

Templer competed at more equestrian competitions with M’Lord Connolly, including winning a three-day international event in München in 1963, followed by victory at the Badminton Horse Trials in 1964. This earned him another place on the Olympic team, this time for the 1964 Tokyo Games, but he failed to finish in the individual event. Following the Olympics Templer sold his horse after he was posted to Malaya. He was awarded with an OBE, followed by the Companion of the Order of the Bath, before retiring from the Army in 1990.