The Farmer Who Wasn’t: Clifford Beechener, Jockey, Trainer, Spy-Catcher

Most accounts of Gösta Caroli’s capture in September 1940 note that he was apprehended by a farmer in Northamptonshire. This is true enough—but “farmer” hardly does Clifford Charles Beechener justice. He was also a celebrated steeplechase jockey, a respected trainer with winners to his name, and a man whose photograph had appeared in the sporting press long before Caroli landed in his fields.

Origins and Early Sporting Life: 1902-1931

Clifford Charles Beechener was born on 6 February 1902 in the Bedfordshire village of Higham Gobion, one of twin boys born to Charles and Flora Beechener (née Rose). The twins had two older siblings, Edward John (born 1894) and Margaret Helen (born 1896). By 1911 the family was farming at Priory Farm, Sharpenhoe, with a seventeen-year-old girl employed as a general servant. Farming was the family trade: Charles ran the holding, Edward assisted, and the twins followed in step. While the boys stayed home to work the land, their sister Margaret was sent to a girls’ boarding school—perhaps a sign of the family’s modest prosperity, or simply of differing expectations for sons and daughters in rural Bedfordshire.

Edward had joined the Bedfordshire Yeomanry as a young man in 1909, attending the regiment’s annual training camps in the years before the war. When the First World War broke out, Corporal E. J. Beechener was called up for active duty. He embarked for France in June 1915 but was invalided home three months later with synovitis of the left knee after a fall—an injury that ended his overseas service. Cliff and his twin brother Robert were still schoolboys, too young for the fighting. At the end of the war Cliff earned his Junior Certificate from Dunstable Grammar School—a small footnote in the local paper but the earliest glimpse of his name in print.

By 1921 the family had moved to Green Farm near Barton-le-Clay, where Cliff and Robert continued to help their father with the work—and where both men were still listed in the 1929 electoral register. Edward had settled in neighbouring Hertfordshire, running his own farm. Through the 1920s Cliff was known in the Barton and Luton districts as an active young sportsman—playing forward for local field-hockey sides, turning out for cricket, singing at social evenings, playing billiards, and riding in gymkhanas. By 1927 he had graduated to local point-to-point races, taking second in the Adjacent Hunts Farmers’ Race at Hitchin and surviving a nasty fall from Gay in another event. He also rode his own horses, including Saxilby, who finished a close second in the Adjacent Hunts Farmers’ Race at Friar’s Wash in 1928 and won the same event the following spring. Cliff continued to appear in nearby gymkhanas through the late 1920s and early 1930s—at St Ippolyts, Codicote and Barton—winning the Bending Race, Musical Chairs (mounted), the Apple-and-Bucket, and even a wheelbarrow race.

On 28 February 1929 the Luton News & Bedfordshire Chronicle carried an advertisement announcing that Mr C. C. Beechener was opening a riding school and livery stables at The Brache, Park Street, Luton. He offered “good hunters, hacks and children’s ponies” for hire or sale at moderate prices, and “expert tuition in all branches.” The venture suggests that Cliff was prospering and building a solid reputation in local farming and equestrian circles.

The next chapter of Cliff’s life would take him beyond Bedfordshire’s fields—to new places, new responsibilities, and a different kind of racecourse.

Beginnings at The Elms: 1930s

On 28 May 1932, Clifford Beechener married Lois Marion Robinson, the daughter of a Bedfordshire architect. The Robinson family had lived at Hinwick Hall, near the Bedfordshire–Northamptonshire border, and Lois’s mother was a well-known racehorse owner. After their honeymoon at Icknield, near Milngavie in Scotland, the couple settled at The Elms, Denton in Northamptonshire.

The Elms was a farming and training operation with an illustrious steeplechasing past. It formed part of the Compton Wynyates estate, owned by the Marquis of Northampton. From about 1900 to 1926 The Elms was run by John Bernard Bletsoe, a celebrated owner-trainer whose horse Grudon won the 1901 Grand National in wintry conditions. Legend has it that Bletsoe coated the horse’s hooves in butter to stop snow from balling underneath; Grudon went on to win by four lengths. In 1908, Bletsoe’s son Bryan rode Rubio—another horse his father had trained—to victory in the Grand National.

In 1926, the Bletsoe livestock and equipment were sold at auction, and four years later Bernard himself died. The tenancy seems to have passed briefly to Walter Philip, who with his sons tried to continue the business but held another dispersal sale within two years. A Mr J. Arrowsmith followed, also auctioning his stock in 1931. The tenancy then appears to have gone to Austin Edward Beechener, Cliff’s uncle, a well-known local farmer who managed several holdings. Austin and his wife, Constance, had only a daughter, so it would seem that he gave Cliff a leg-up in the world, entrusting him and Lois with the day-to-day running of The Elms and the freedom to develop the equestrian business.

With the move to The Elms settled, the couple soon found that country life had its own surprises. Shortly after arriving, the newlyweds made local headlines when two of their small dogs escaped and were seen near a neighbour’s chicken coop. The next morning sixty-eight chickens and five hens were found dead, though it was never proved whether the culprits were the Beechener dogs or foxes. The case was dismissed, leaving Cliff and Lois slightly embarrassed but otherwise unscathed. Two years later, in September 1934, they were each fined fifteen shillings for keeping a dog without a licence—another minor brush with the village bench and further proof that The Elms was a lively household. Their family was growing too: a daughter, Jane Angela, was born in 1933, and a son, Robin Holmes, in 1935.

Throughout the 1930s, Cliff’s name surfaced constantly in print. What had once been local Bedfordshire snippets—village matches, farm notes, minor events—now appeared in the national racing pages. From about 1931 onward, his activities as a jockey drew notice well beyond Northamptonshire. That same year, he was granted his official trainer’s licence, marking his transition from enthusiastic amateur to professional horseman. On 16 April 1931 he rode Holmes to a second-place finish in the National Hunt Steeplechase, a horse that appears to have been owned by his uncle—and whose name later echoed in that of his son, Robin Holmes.

Cliff was soon a regular in the major newspapers, riding for other owners in steeplechase races and, increasingly, for himself. On 28 January 1935, for example, the Western Daily Press listed Prosperity (owned by Mr C.C. Beechener and ridden by C. Beechener) in the 1:30 Forest Steeplechase Handicap Hurdle at Leicester.

By 1934–1935, Cliff’s operation at Denton was expanding. The Sunderland Daily Echo reported that Shiny Knight, Paulesbury, Somercotes and Nufsed had joined the training team at his yard, while the Sheffield Independent noted the addition of Drintown and Hollywood. A Daily Mirror “Turf Brieflets” column mentioned still more arrivals—Slippery Sam, Mangee, Witching Time and The Sow’s Ear—to be trained for jumping. By December 1936 he had seventeen horses in training, clear proof that The Elms had become a busy, well-regarded yard. Cliff had become owner, jockey, and trainer all in one.

One of his most memorable wins as a trainer came in 1934 with Lord Rosebery’s Crown Prince, winner of the National Hunt Steeplechase. Other notable successes followed with Lord Nunburnholme’s Hypericum (not to be confused with Lord Derby’s later flat racer of the same name) and Sir David Llewellyn’s Tapinette in 1937 and 1938.

He continued to play cricket locally during these years. But in April 1937 his racing career took a hard knock: the Derby Evening Telegraph reported that he had been admitted to the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary with shoulder and arm injuries after his mount Olatoi fell in the Alton Towers Steeplechase at Uttoxeter. The horse, owned by Mr J.F. Franklin, was destroyed, but Cliff recovered.

By 1938 he was judging local gymkhanas and appeared regularly in the papers. That year, he was still riding for his uncle A.E. Beechener, including aboard Shiny Knight, one of the family’s best National Hunt horses. A year later, the Northampton Mercury (19 May 1939) carried an advertisement for Shiny Knight—now standing at stud at The Elms—for a fee of two guineas. The horse, valued at £800, was by Knight of the Garter out of All Glass, and inquiries were directed to C.C. Beechener, The Elms Stud, Denton—a clear sign that the younger Beechener was taking an increasingly central role in the family’s operations.

That same year, the 1939 National Register recorded Clifford and Lois Beechener living at The Elms Farm with their children, Jane and Robin, along with a nurse, a cook, and two farm workers—George Armstrong and Patrick Daly. The snapshot captures a young family firmly established on the property even as the wider world edged toward war.

A month later, in October 1939, Clifford’s uncle Austin Edward Beechener retired from farming and held a major dispersal sale at The Elms. The auction catalogue listed stock and equipment on the scale of a 300-acre tenancy—eleven horses, 112 head of cattle, 416 sheep, and forty pigs—together with tractors, ploughs, and other machinery. Conducted by Swaffield & Son, the sale was likely procedural, required to close Austin’s accounts and transfer the lease. Clifford, already managing the property and training horses from The Elms, appears to have taken over the tenancy and may have purchased part of the equipment himself. Within a few years, newspapers were describing him as farming 350 acres in his own right.

1940s: The War Years – Farming, Fuel & Fines

As 1939 rolled into 1940 and the Phoney War drifted on, The Elms was already under Clifford’s full management, and it was up to him to deal with new demands and challenges. In the latter part of 1939, several of Cliff’s farm and stables hands joined up: stable lad Norman Folwell, aged 21, joined the Royal Army Service Corps as a driver, while groom Maurice L. Colley, aged 33, enlisted in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps — a natural fit for someone used to handling horses. Cliff was one of the lucky ones, too young to have fought in the First World War and too old to fight in the Second World War. As a farmer, his skills and experience were needed on the Home Front to supply Britain with much needed food. Cliff was determined to do what he could though, and joined the Local Defence Volunteers (Home Guard) where he served as a Lance Corporal.

The war would also impact the racing world both flat and steeplechase. In 1939, after war was declared, horse racing was completely suspended under emergency regulations, and many courses were soon requisitioned for military use. Within months, the government realized that Britons could benefit from a morale-boost and limited racing resumed, albeit under strict controls. For country trainers like Cliff, farming took precedence over racing, although the horses stayed and were likely put to work, given fuel rationing.

On 4 September 1940, Cliff appeared before Northamptonshire Divisional Court. His farm worker, Patrick Francis Daly had been caught driving a motor-tractor without a licence or insurance. Cliff argued that he was in a difficult circumstance, working 10-15 hours a day and “couldn’t think of everything”. He thought he had instructed the insurance company to renew the insurance. The court was not swayed. Daly was fined five shillings for each offence, and Cliff received matching fines for permitting and aiding the unlicensed driving—in all, fifteen shillings. The case earned a few paragraphs in the local press on 6 September—a routine wartime footnote in a farmer’s life.

The next day, something far from routine unfolded in the fields near Denton—an event that would remain secret until the war’s end. Shortly before 5 pm, on 7 September, farmhand Patrick Daly was passing through the fields and saw a man lying beneath a hedge along a ditch. He reported the man to Cliff at the farm who took his rifle and, accompanied by Patrick and two London University undergraduates named Brett and Slade, returned to the field. Cliff stated that they went to the south-east boundary of a field called Old Barn Close, quite near to Denton Wood (post-war newspapers said it was the Twenty Acre Meadow). There they did indeed find a man lying in a ditch who, upon being challenged by Cliff, jumped up and said he was a “Kamerad”. Cliff saw a parachute and suitcase with a wireless transmitter, along with a pistol in the ditch. He left the things behind and accompanied the man back to the house, a distance of about 300 yards. Along the way, the man said he was a Swede, Gösta Caroli, who had baled out from an aircraft and had come from Hamburg. He insisted he was the only parachutist who had landed in the area.

Upon reaching the house, Cliff phoned his LDV commander, Sergeant Smart, his landlord, the Marquis of Northampton, and the Northampton Police, informing them that he had caught a parachutist. While they awaited the arrival of the authorities, Cliff (or possibly his wife) served tea and cake to the parachutist, who marvelled at the apparent lack of wartime rationing. When the police arrived, Superintendent Detective Morris questioned the man and then accompanied him and Beechener back to the field where he had been found. According to the police, this was south of the farm buildings and in a deep ditch under the boundary hedge on the east side of the field. There, they found a parachute with harness, a groundsheet, rug (travel blanket), wireless set in case, automatic pistol, packets of chocolates and biscuits, raincoat and trilby hat. Cliff later said the spy might have got away had it not been for the amount of stuff he had with him. It took three men to bundle it all up and carry it back to The Elms. The Marquis of Northampton had by then arrived from Castle Ashby with a revolver and a camera, but the police forbade any photographs. They bundled the spy and his gear into their vehicle and took him to Angel Lane Police Station in Northampton. After the spy’s arrest, life at The Elms quickly returned to the rhythms of wartime farming and limited racing.

A few months later, in November 1941, Cliff advertised for a good shepherd stockman, with son, to work on the farm. An excellent cottage and garden were available and a “high wage” would be paid to “a really conscientious man”. The following January, Cliff had five runners in the steeplechase races at Worcester, including Schubert, Le Titien III, Ethie Agnes, Yankee Clipper, and Satisfied. Schubert was the horse to note, offspring of Lightning Artist out of Wild Music. He was owned by Mrs. Keith Cameron and had entered Cliff’s stables in 1940. On 21 March 1942, Schubert finished fourth in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. It would be the last Gold Cup race until 1945.

On 13 February 1942, Cliff appeared in the newspapers again when a neighbouring farmer took him to Northampton Country Court, claiming that 32 of Cliff’s bullocks had gotten into his fields the previous November and damaged ricks, crops and fruit trees. A valuer, hired by the offended farmer, stated that the damage amounted to at least £38 for the barley alone. Cliff hired two valuers who estimated damage to the crops at £5 and damage to the fruit trees at 15s. The judge stated that the case showed a “lamentable divergence of opinion” from the “experts” called by either side. He gave the plaintiffs a £9 settlement that had been agreed to, as well as a further £16 and costs. A few months later, Cliff was in the news again, being fined £1 for having three dogs without a licence.

Later that same year, on 7 June, the extended Beechener family celebrated the golden anniversary of Charles and Flora at Green Farm. All four children came to the celebrations along with six grandchildren. A seventh grandchild was serving on one of His Majesty’s destroyers. The celebration was bittersweet since Flora had been ill for the past three years. In late August 1943, Flora passed away.

On 23 June 1944, Cliff was summoned to court, again, this time on a charge of wasting fuel. This charge was dismissed. Through it all, Cliff’s name continued to appear in the local papers—sometimes for racing, sometimes for minor infractions—a familiar thread of rural life woven through the fabric of wartime Britain.

Racing after the War (1940s–1970s)

With the war almost over, racing began to regain some normality. In Cliff’s stables, Schubert was the standout — a local favourite around Denton. He had last raced on 21 March 1942, finishing fourth in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, but Cliff had been schooling him over hurdles. In January 1945, Schubert won the New Year Chase at Cheltenham, leading his six rivals from start to finish. The Daily Telegraph noted that he “finished so fresh and full of running that he will probably carry a 7 lb penalty at Windsor next Saturday.”

With the cessation of hostilities in mid-May 1945, the story of Gösta Caroli could finally be told. Newspapers reported Cliff’s role in the spy’s capture that month and again in September. He was the hero of the hour—and surely retold the tale many times in the local pubs.

In March 1946, Cliff confidently declared that Schubert would win the Grand National, calling him “the best jumper and stayer in the world.” Schubert finished fifth at Aintree, one of only six horses to complete the course. Over the next few years Cliff rode him to several more victories before reluctantly retiring the fourteen-year-old in March 1948.

That same period brought lighter moments. In September 1946, the Leicester Mercury reported Cliff’s 10s fine for an expired driving licence; his letter to the court included a postscript urging the magistrates to back Pampered Love and Rue de la Paix. A 1947 report described him exercising his horses on the old Denton Aerodrome and training a dozen flat racers. His children, Jane and Robin, were already competing in local gymkhanas, clearly inheriting their father’s skill.

By 1950, Cliff was known for “getting the best out of troublesome or broken-down horses,” and that year his stable celebrated Desir’s unlikely win in the Champion Trial Hurdle at Birmingham. The Leicester Evening Mail called Desir “an exasperating animal” who “seemed to have taken a violent dislike to jumping.” A year later, Cliff took on eleven-year-old Josh Gifford as an apprentice; the young lad stayed three years and went on to become a champion National Hunt jockey.

In December 1953, a court case brought different attention when stable lad Maurice Leslie Colley sued for negligence after falling into a concealed ditch on a plough gallop. The judge dismissed the claim, ruling that Colley knew the ground and the ditch’s location, even if overgrown with grass.

Meanwhile, Cliff’s marriage was faltering. On 14 September 1954, Lois sailed for a round-trip voyage of the West Indies, returning a month later and giving The Elms as her address—but not for long. In early 1956, another horse had entered Cliff’s yard: Zeus II, owned by Mrs. A. Mercer. Owner and trainer hit it off, and later that year Cliff married Jessica J. A. Mercer in Northampton. On 20 April 1957, Zeus II (owned by the new Mrs. C. C. Beechener) won the Stroud Selling Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham. Jessica may have been Jessica Joan Ann (Chapman) Mercer, widow of Lawrence Mercer (1911–1952). There is no further mention of her in newspaper reports, nor any record of this second marriage in Cliff or Jessica’s Ancestry family trees—leaving its duration uncertain.

Happier news followed. In November 1960, Cliff’s daughter, Angela Jane—an amateur point-to-point jockey—became engaged to Brian Stuart Macintosh of Ealing. The next year his son, also an amateur jockey, married Brenda E. Hallam in Northampton.

In 1968, aged sixty-six, Cliff rode Danger Signal in a two-horse charity race to raise funds for those affected by the foot-and-mouth outbreak. He lost narrowly to George Hartigan but remained good-humoured about it. Cliff’s ex-wife, Lois, died in 1973, and Cliff retired the following year, closing a career that had carried him from wartime headlines to nearly three decades of post-war racing.

Legacy (1974-1983)

Although retired from training, Cliff stayed connected to the racing world and to the people whose careers had begun in his yard. Just a few years later, his name surfaced again in the news.

On 21 December 1977, thirty-two years after the incident, papers reported that Cliff had written to the Jockey Club about an old grievance. Back in 1945, while riding Schubert at Windsor, he had accused champion jockey Fred Rimell—aboard Right ’Un—of erratic riding. The stewards overruled the complaint and fined Cliff £5 for making an “unjustified” protest. In his 1977 autobiography Aintree Iron, Rimell finally admitted he had, in fact, cut Beechener off several times during that race. Cliff requested a formal pardon (and the return of his five pounds), but while the Jockey Club acknowledged the miscarriage of justice, they said too much time had passed to take any action.

What endured, however, was the legacy of the young riders he’d mentored. Cliff will perhaps be best remembered for giving Josh Gifford his start in racing. Gifford went on to become a champion jockey and later a respected trainer, saying, “I learned everything from Cliff—he was a really genuine man.” Before his own retirement, Gifford would be National Hunt Champion four times.

Cliff Beechener died in the first week of August 1983. His memorial service was held later that month at Castle Ashby Church, with donations requested for the Injured Jockeys Fund or Cancer Research—a fitting tribute to a man who had spent his life among horses, riders, and the uncertain luck of the turf.

Conclusion

In wartime espionage circles, Clifford Charles Beechener is remembered for the capture of Gösta Caroli. Official files call him a “farmer,” but that title hardly captures the man. Cliff was a skilled jockey, trainer, and owner of National Hunt horses—better known on the racecourses of Britain than in the footnotes of spy history. His life bridged two worlds, and both spoke to his sharp eye, steady hands, and quiet determination.

Sources

Jockeypedia – Beechener, Cliff
British Newspaper Archive – newspaper articles
Ancestry – genealogical information
National Archives – MI5’s declassified file on Gösta Caroli – KV 2/60

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