Description

Cover series BLCS 118

Produced by Benham

Signed by Richard Meade

Following information attributable to ‘Big Saint’ from Australia

On 9th July 1996, Benham Silk fdcs, of Folkestone Kent, produced a limited edition fdc of 5000 with Richard Meade the subject of the cachet. The cover is postmarked at Badminton with a pictorial postmark of a horse jumping a fence.

Richard John Hannay Meade, OBE (4 December 1938 – 8 January 2015) was Britain’s most successful male equestrian Olympian. He was a triple Olympic gold medalist and the first British rider to win an individual Olympic title. He also won five World Championship medals, including team golds in 1970 and 1982.

Richard Meade won the Badminton Horse Trials on two occasions. Firstly in 1970 on “The Poacher” & again in 1982 on “Speculator III”.

Throughout his eventing career Meade was the outstanding rider of his time and the lynchpin of British teams for 21 years. In 1964, he won the Burghley Horse Trials on Barberry. Meade was a member of Britain’s gold medal winning team at both the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics, and also won the individual gold in 1972. He also competed in the 1964 and 1976 Olympics, as well as the substitute competition in Fontainebleau during the partial boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Meade also won two World Championship gold medals and three silver medals, as well as three European Championship gold medals and two bronze medals. He twice won the Badminton Horse Trials, in 1970 on The Poacher and in 1982 on Speculator III.

Meade excelled at the major events and championships; in four Olympic games he never finished out of the top eight places. When he retired he was 6th in the list of the most successful British Olympians of all time across all sports; he is currently equal 11th.