THE racehorse trainer John Dunlop, pictured, who has died aged 78, saddled two winners of the Derby in Shirley Heights (1978) and Erhaab (1994). He also won the St Leger three times, the 1000 Guineas three times and the Oaks twice, with the 2000 Guineas the only British Classic to elude him.

He was awarded an OBE for his charitable work and was responsible for over 3,500 winners before retiring at the end of the 2012 season, having first taken out a licence in 1966.

Married to Susan in 1965, Dunlop’s two sons, Ed and Harry, are both successful trainers.

Erhaab and Salsabil were among the many stars Dunlop trained for owner Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum. His racing manager Angus Gold has fond memories of Dunlop and held him in the highest regard.

He said: “He was a fantastic man and he was a huge part of my life. Where do you start? He trained us a Derby winner in Erhaab. Salsabil was a top-class mare who won the Guineas and the Irish Derby and I think the only time she ever disappointed was in the Arc.

“Marju was favourite for the Guineas and got beat before finishing second in the Derby and then he came back just over 10 days later to win the St James’s Palace Stakes which was a remarkable performance.

“He was an amazing mentor to me and I learnt an awful lot from him. I spent some of my happiest times down in the park at Arundel watching the horses and listening to him. He was a very calm and wise man, but like all of us he could be prickly at times and he was no push over.”

THE banker Lord Thomas of Macclesfield, who has died aged 80, was the architect of the Co-op Bank’s ethical stance. Colleagues regarded him as the leading personal banker of his generation.

He came to prominence in 1973 when he joined the Co-operative Bank as the first marketing manager of any UK bank.

He introduced free banking, the free-for-life credit card and an ethical stance.

He became the first managing director of Unity Trust, co-owned by the Co-op and the trade unions, where he brought employee share ownership to Britain.

In 1988, he was recalled full time to head the Co-operative Bank which became the most popular in the country under his leadership, restoring the bank’s co-operative principles and working closely with the Labour Party of which he had been a lifelong supporter.

THE astronomer Bradford Smith, who has died aged 86, led the NASA team that interpreted pictures taken by Voyager space probes as they passed Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune and then presented the images to the public. He was a retired professor of planetary sciences and astronomy at the University of Arizona and research astronomer at the University of Hawaii in Manoa.

At NASA press conferences on Voyager discoveries following their launch in 1977, Smith was a star, and known for his dry wit. At a press conference showing a multi-coloured, pockmarked moon of Jupiter called Io, Smith quipped, “I’ve seen better looking pizzas than this.” His quote ended up on front pages around the world.

A 1981 People magazine profile called Smith “the nation’s tour guide” who showed the public active volcanoes on Io, violent hurricanes on Jupiter, thousands of complex rings around Saturn and other space oddities that constituted “a very bizarre world,” as Smith put it, “that goes beyond the imagination of science fiction writers.”