THEY don’t make them like Jimmy Melrose any more.

The “grand old man of York”, as he was known at the time, was chairman of the York Race Committee at York Racecourse for an astonishing 50 years. Our first photograph shows him, dapper as ever, on his 100th birthday on August 5, 1928, only a few years after he stepped down.

Born in 1828 into a family of sheepskin dealers or “fellmongers”, his passion for racing at Knavesmire seems to have been fuelled by witnessing the great contest in 1851 in which The Flying Dutchman beat Voltigeur.

He is reported to have made the only bet in his life on the out-come of the race – and lost.

A surveyor and land agent, his firm, Melrose and Hornsey, was responsible for the successful draining of the boggy Knavesmire course. That ultimately led to him being accepted on to the race committee in 1867, becoming chairman eight years later.

The racecourse flourished under his 50-year stewardship, and in 1908, with the help of local solicitor James Teasdale, who was secretary to the race committee, he got an Act of Parliament passed which saw stockmen give up their rights to graze on the common land of Knavesmire, which meant racing did not move from the course.

But he had his fingers in many other pies. A freemason for more than 75 years, he served as a York councillor – becoming Lord Mayor in 1876 – as well as being treasurer of York County Hospital and the Yorkshire School For The Blind. He was a director of Yorkshire Gas, Yorkshire Insurance and Yorkshire Savings Bank, and ran a highly-successful wine and spirits business.

He died, aged 100, on February 4, 1929, and was accorded a funeral in York Minster. He is commemorated by the street which bears his name – Melrosegate – and by Melrose Stand at York Racecourse.

• Photographs reproduced courtesy of the City of York Council’s Imagine York website, imagineyork.co.uk, and courtesy of York Race Committee