FROM THE ARCHIVES

When the Hurlingham Club hosted its first polo match in the summer of 1874, it was a risky and costly experiment. To mark 150 years since this inaugural match, we delve into the archives to reveal how this event heralded not just the Club’s long association with the sport, but also the purchase of the house and estate

As polo aficionados will know, the first match on English soil took place in 1869 when the 10th Hussars challenged the 9th Lancers to a game at Aldershot. Over the next couple of years, matches took place in Richmond Park, Hounslow Heath and West Brompton, but the sport lacked a proper home. We don’t know exactly how Hurlingham first emerged as the main contender, though Nigel Miskin’s history of the Club suggests that ‘certain polo-playing cavalry officers, who had visited Hurlingham for pigeon shooting, first suggested that the grounds of the Club might be used for polo’. We do know, however, that much of the impetus came from the Club manager, the Hon Captain D.J. Monson, who saw polo’s growing popularity as an opportunity to boost membership and income.

The Club minutes record that a committee was formed on 27 July 1872 ‘to consider whether the game of polo cannot be introduced at the Club’. Finding a suitable area on the site for a polo ground was their first task. Initially, it was suggested the shooting enclosure be used, but this was evidently not deemed suitable. Later that year, the committee approached the owner of the house and estate, Richard Naylor, about leasing the orchard for conversion to a polo ground. They clearly felt confident their venture would be a success, as these initial discussions ultimately developed into a proposal to purchase the entire estate. In 1873, the Trustees agreed to pay Naylor £27,500 for the property and determined that polo would be played there the following year.

This was a high-risk venture. As well as the funds needed to purchase the estate, the Trustees also had to pay another considerable sum of money to make the old orchard fit for polo. This involved felling and uprooting the trees and levelling and preparing the ground. This was done under the stewardship of the Head Gardener, William Sutherland, working under the Club Secretary, Walter Smythe. Their hard graft created the grounds of which polo player W.S. Buckmaster once said: ‘You can ask a pony to do things on its turf which you would never call upon him to attempt elsewhere.’

Main: Illustration of the opening match at Hurlingham, 6 June 1874. Above Left: List of Members and Shooting Scores Book, 1875. Right: Excerpt from the Hurlingham Club Committee minutes, 27 July 1872;

The Club’s inaugural polo match took place on 6 June 1874 between the Royal Horse Guards (Blue) and 1st Life Guards

The Club’s inaugural polo match took place on 6 June 1874 between the Royal Horse Guards (Blue) and 1st Life Guards. Luckily, it was a success, with the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), Princess Alexandra and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh in attendance. ‘The Blues scored an easy victory by five goals, notwithstanding that their ponies were much smaller than those ridden by the 1st Life Guards’, reported the Illustrated London News, also adding: ‘Unfortunately, rain commenced in earnest before the beginning of the game.’ Some things never change!

While pigeon shooting and polo existed side by side at the Club for the next few decades, as the 1875 List of Members Book demonstrates, the Club’s gamble proved to be a wise one. Pigeon shooting was finally abolished at the Club in 1905, by which time Hurlingham was firmly established as the headquarters of polo for Britain and its then Empire (as would be the case until 1948). Thanks to the vision of Monson and colleagues, Hurlingham was secured not just as a home for polo, but for the Club and its members in perpetuity.

CLARE BUTTON, CLUB ARCHIVIST

Welcome to our NEW CLUB ARCHIVIST

Clare Button took over as Club Archivist from Carrie Starren in March. Originally from Chester, Clare studied English at the University of Cambridge and gained a Master’s in Archives and Records Management from the University of Liverpool in 2009. After ten years in Edinburgh, working in local government, the energy industry and the higher education sector, Clare relocated to London in 2019, and was previously the Archivist at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry. As well as her role at the Club, Clare currently also works as the Archivist for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Midwives. She is also a freelance proofreader and historic tour guide.

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