EDDY ARIDA


TRIBUTE


23 DECEMBER 1933 - 15 MARCH 2021


REMEMBERING EDDY ARIDA


EDDY FOUND A WAY of ageing by the calendar without ever growing old. Of that we have Royal Assent. Learning to play polo at age 42? Waste of time, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh remarked to him at Guards Polo Club before walking away. Prince Philip sadly did not return in time to watch our Eddy make it to a handicap of one. Youthful as he always was in his dapper


way, Eddy was always old-world grand. Born in Lebanon, Eddy did Britain proud. His family put British soldiers in their uniform in World War II and used profit there to fund a Spitfire. Eddy didn’t serve Britain alone; he built refugee camps in Jordan and was honoured by King Hussein for it. Eddy was decorated by the


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Swedish Red Cross too. Business and the service it resulted from,


was by-the-by. Eddy’s heart was always in sports. He was the England water-skiing champion at age 20, he won other skiing competitions, he was a sharp fencer. His passion for polo led him to create the Phoenician Cup 12-goal tournament in 1982. He played well into his 70s, despite losing an eye in a shooting accident. Eddy studied at Cambridge, and went to Victoria College in Egypt, that king of


Eddy played polo well into his 70s, despite losing an eye in a shooting accident


GUARDS POLO CLUB OFFICIAL YEARBOOK 2021


colleges, and certainly a college for kings. So, it is right that Eddy should count kings among his friends. He was himself naturally regal - remarkably independent and wonderfully gregarious. He was an expansive host; he’d cook himself for scores of people at his parties at his home adjacent to the Club. His salads, I recall, were as delicious as they were meticulous and served with, yes, upside down rice. His was the world of The Great Gatsby. Eddy died peacefully at his home in


Lebanon on March 13 after a short but dignified fight with cancer. He is survived by his wife Liliane, his children Joumana and Johnny and his four grandchildren. He shall be missed. ◆ Marina Capello


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