Stephen Allday was born on 12th April 1941. His father, Lt. Colonel Frank (‘Bill’) Allday, who had served in the Royal Artillery and Stephen was brought up at Halford, Warwickshire.
Having been educated at Summerfields, Oxford and Shrewsbury, Stephen entered Mons OCS.
In 1960 he was commissioned into The Queen’s Own Hussars who were then stationed in Munster, West Germany where he joined ‘B’ Squadron as a Troop Leader.
In 1962 the regiment moved to Detmold. Stephen transferred in 1963 to ‘A’ Squadron, which went to Berlin in early 1965 when the rest of the Regiment assumed the role of RAC Training Regiment at Catterick. In 1966, he moved from the Berlin Squadron to Catterick to command the ‘B’ Vehicle Wing until 1967 when the regiment moved to Maresfield Camp, Uckfield where it converted to Armoured Cars and from whence he left the Army.
It was during his short time at Maresfield that Stephen married Sara (‘Sally’) McConnell, sister of Ian who was a brother officer in the regiment and whom he had met when she was working as a nanny in Germany.
Apart from being a skilled bridge and tennis player, Stephen was an excellent all round sportsman. He was in the Regimental Basketball Team in 1960, the Regimental Rugby Team from 1962 to 1964 and in the Regimental Alpine Ski Team every year until 1965.
Stephen left the Army to join his father in Allday Ltd., the family printing business in Birmingham but he remained in the Army Emergency Reserve for some years during which time he managed to secure time with ‘C’ Squadron in Hong Kong and a short visit to ‘A’ Squadron in Singapore. He was a regular attendee at Regimental Dinners and Rocking Horse Lunches which allowed him to keep in touch with those old comrades living far afield.
Stephen’s father died unexpectedly young in 1970 leaving him running the business at a time when the print unions were extremely militant. In 1979 Stephen sold the business and, with Colin McInnes, an ex-3rd Hussar officer, bought Dukes Ltd., a Birmingham based furniture manufacturing business which they ran for ten years.
It was during this time that Stephen’s interest in racing began with his acquisition of his first horse. In 1985 he became Chairman of Warwick Racecourse and he began stewarding at a number of courses including Cheltenham. In 2005 Stephen became a member of the Jockey Club Disciplinary Panel and in 2008 he became Chairman of the BHA Licensing Committee.
In 2011 aged seventy, he retired from all his racing appointments. This gave him time to concentrate on his other passions i.e. fishing and golf.
Captain Stephen Allday died on 15th April 2024.
