PROFILE


A PASSION FOR POLO


On the 40th anniversary of his death, Lord Louis


Mountbatten is profiled by leading historian Robert Lacey, recalling the Earl's influence on the modern game and how he inspired a raft of Royals to pick up their sticks and play


“I


’ve gone completely dippy about polo,” wrote Lord Louis “Dickie” Mountbatten from Jodhpur, India, at the start of January 1922 to


his friend and cousin Bertie, Duke of York, the future King George VI, and father of the present Queen. The thundering of the hooves, the swish of the malacca cane, the elation when the mallet head clicked sweetly to send the ball lofting between the posts – “in my opinion,” exulted the young naval officer, this game of chess played by gladiators “is the best game in the world . . . I loved it and hope to get lots more.” Just 21 years old, Mountbatten was touring


No matter, Mountbatten was hooked, his


“IN MY OPINION [POLO] IS THE BEST


GAME IN THE WORLD… I LOVED IT AND HOPE TO GET LOTS MORE” LORD LOUIS MOUNTBATTEN


interest in India suddenly focussed, as the Duke of Windsor later put it, on “that part of the country bounded by the white boards of polo fields”. When he got back to London, Mountbatten enlisted for a month’s course in military equitation with the Life Guards, who, like all the British horse regiments at that date, were still practising battlefield cavalry charges with sabres drawn, and Mountbatten commissioned slow- motion movies of the best players striking the ball so he could


India in the aftermath of World War I as an aide to Edward, Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII and Duke of Windsor, then 27 – who had already caught the polo bug and could himself wield a mallet with some dexterity. Mountbatten was not so proficient. In his first outing at Jodhpur, he confessed that he wandered aimlessly through the opening chukkas, missing everything until the final period, when he just managed to catch the ball for a couple of satisfying clunks. The young man’s early progress was not


helped by a mischievous major who told him that the proper way to mount your pony was to run up from behind and take a flying leap over the haunches to land in the saddle legs akimbo – and promptly demonstrated the technique. The major did not tell the young Mountbatten that the horse with which he was demonstrating this dangerous trick was his most docile pony by 500 per cent…


14 GUARDS POLO CLUB OFFICIAL YEARBOOK 2019


study their technique. He had a caged “polo- pit” built at his country home where he would sit on the wooden horse for hours, practising his swing and developing an out-leaning, off- side backhand that few could match.


Lord Louis Mountbatten and HRH Prince Charles in conversation at Guards Polo Club, 1979


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