Joseph Laycock

Sir Joseph Laycock’s brief involvement with motor boating seems to have started when, along with Winchester Clowes George Atkinson and his friend Hugh, Duke of Westminster he took part in the A-Class competition on Southampton Water at the 1908 Olympics. Unfortunately their boat, Wolseley-Siddeley ran aground in the second race and failed to finish. The following year Layock raced his own British-built boat ENV against Wolseley-Siddeley at the Monaco meeting, but there is no record of Laycock’s involvement in the sport after that,

The son of a former MP, Laycock was educated at Eton and Oxford before becoming a distinguished soldier which saw him serve in the South African war and he was awarded the D.S.O. in 1900. When the Nottinghamshire Battery Royal Horse Artillery (South Nott’s Hussars) was formed as part of the new Territorial Force in 1908, Laycock was their first Colonel. He then served in France and Egypt during World War I and was knighted in 1919. Between 1922-32 he was Colonel of the North Midland Brigade of the Territorial Army and in 1940 was appointed County Commandant of the Nottinghamshire Home Guard. Laycock was further honoured with the T.D. (Territorial Decoration).

A former High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire Laycock’s favourite pastime was riding with the famous Quorn Hunt. His eldest son was Sir Robert Laycock, the British Army chief of combined operations during World War II.