In the 1920’s the Squire of Sawtry, Ben Irish, began his foray into the world of horseracing and his friend, trainer Basil Jarvis  trained Ben’s first horse Periosteum, which he bought for £200, and who was successful in winning Ben several races including the Ascot Gold Cup in 1921. Jarvis felt that the next step was to train a horse for possible entry into the Epsom Derby. In late 1921, spending time attending all the horse auctions on Ben’s behalf, Jarvis was at the Tattersall’s Doncaster Sales when a yearling was put up for sale. This horse, bred by Sir John Robinson of Nottinghamshire, was a medium sized chestnut stallion with a white star blaze. It had come from good stock and its sire was American bred horse, Tracery, whose own sire, Rock Sand, had won several races including the St Ledger in 1912. The dam was Miss Matty and although she had not won a race herself, she had produced several winners at stud. It was now on his trainer Jarvis’s advice that Ben Irish bought this stallion called Papyrus for 3,500 guineas. Papyrus went on to win six of his eight races as a two year old in 1922. Now as a three year old, Papyrus was entered in several races in 1923 including the Chester Vase which he won over one and a half miles, the same distance as The Derby. Jarvis, having felt that Papyrus had performed well at Chester Racecourse, advised Ben that he was ready to be entered in the Epsom Derby of that year and his rider would be Irish jockey Steve O’Donaghue who, with two previous Derby wins under his belt, was an experienced Derby jockey. It was a cold, dull misty day on Wednesday June 6th 1923 and the newspapers dubbed it the Overcoat Derby. The race attracted a crowd estimated in the region of 250,000 people including Edward, the Prince of Wales, who, later as King Edward V111, would abdicate the throne. This was a major event for the village of Sawtry. Some of villagers travelled to the Epsom Downs racecourse in Surrey to watch the race, many other Sawtry residents had a flutter at the bookies on Papyrus. The first wireless radio broadcast by Guglielmo Marconi took place in the UK in 1920. The British Broadcasting Company launched Britain’s first national Radio Broadcasting Service from Marconi House in London in November 1922. By 1923 the Crystal Radio Receiver was starting to find it way into homes so it is possible that those residents in Sawtry, who could afford to buy one, would have been able to listen to the race. The actual length of the race was one mile, four furlongs and six yards or 2,420 metres. There were 19 runners from an original entries list of 344.  After an exciting race and with the odds at 100-1, Sawtry horse Papyrus came home as the winner by a length in a time of two minutes thirty eight seconds with one and a half lengths between the second and third. Interestingly the 1st, 2nd and 3rd placed horse’s names all began with the letter ‘P’, Papyrus, Pharos and Parth. Co owners John Hornung, Sawtry Squire and resident Ben Irish, trainer Basil Jarvis and jockey Steve O’Donaghue had done it! Together they had won the 1923 Epsom Derby at the first attempt against all the odds. The winner’s purse was over £11,500 about £615,000 in today’s money. On June 7th 1923 Ben Irish and his wife were invited to Buckingham Palace for lunch with King George V to congratulate him on Papyrus’ win. My late father, George Townsend, who was a young man in Sawtry in 1923, said that every household in the village received a box of groceries and a bag of coal from Ben Irish in celebration of his win.  Papyrus’ Derby win was now the talk of the horse racing world and the newspapers dubbed him the most important colt in Horse Racing in 1923. It was now national and international news and made the papers in America, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. America especially had taken notice and the horse racing fraternity decided that it was their top horse Zev who was the most important colt in Horse Racing that year. A race against the two of them was organized at Belmont Park New York to decide it and in September of that year Papyrus was shipped over to the states, one of the earliest examples of a horse being entered in a single horse race overseas. However, Ben Irish’s health was now of concern and his doctors advised against him making the journey to see Papyrus race against Zev at Belmont Park. Zev won the race and although Papyrus was entered in more races he did not win any more and retired to stud in 1924. Sadly over the next few years, Ben Irish’s health started to deteriorate and on March 15th 1927 he passed away. He was 64. His death made the New York Times as a past owner of a Derby winner and Sawtry was in mourning at the loss of their Squire. The farms were sold to the Heathcote family of the Conington Estate, also owners of farmland in Sawtry, so expanding their farm holdings. Ben’s widow continued to live in Sawtry until her death in 1939. The Manor House was sold and Papyrus was retained by co owner John Hornung who sold the horse to Basil Jarvis who then put him to stud. After a long retirement, Papyrus was found dead in his stall in 1941 and by then would have been over 20 years old.  Ben Irish and his wife are both buried at All Saints Church Sawtry and there is a family memorial in the churchyard to one of Sawtry’s most famous residents. Papyrus and Ben Irish became local legend and villagers of Sawtry talked about Papyrus for many years often with various pronunciations, Pap-rus being the most used one but it was in fact Papyrus (Pap-i-rus) like the Egyptian parchment that the horse and in turn the Street in Sawtry called Papyrus Way, was named after, possibly to reflect the fact that Tutankhamen’s tomb had been found by Howard Carter in 1922.