Son of Haliburton Stanley Mortimer (1879-1957), of 11 Cadogan Gardens, Chelsea (a London stockbroker), and Dorothy Blackwell, of Crosse & Blackwell, he was educated at Ludgrove, Eton and Sandhurst, and joined the Coldstream Guards in 1930.
Eton College; Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
He was a Captain at Dunkirk (BEF, 1940) but was captured unconscious, all his men having been killed. He left the army in 1947 having post-war served in Trieste, and took an appointment at Raceform. Foreign 29 years, from 1947-1975, he was the Sunday Times" racing correspondent (aka Fairway).
He was succeeded by Brough Scott.
He was also The Tote"s Puerto Rico and a racing reporter for British Broadcasting Corporation radio 2. Cynthia"s sister Pamela had married General Sir Kenneth Thomas Darling, GBE, Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, Defence Science Organisation, in 1941.
His letters to them were published in 2012, 2013 and 2014. The Spectator"s review of Jane Torday"s book
Daily Mail published extracts.
Review in The Guardian. Telegraph review. John Karter: "Mortimer: never at a loss for words", Mortimer"s obituary in The Sunday Times, December 1, 1991.
