New Book Polo and the Great War

[tharkin56]

Thanks to all forum members whom I will message directlly, Polo and the Great War now concluded with 707 players and other 650 photos of the Fallen men.

Biographies taken from a variety of sources.

It is hard to imagine any sport that had been more badly hit by the Great War than polo. in the Summer of 1914 the English Players had just regained the Westchester cup from America as the season had come to a dramatic end. Then came the outbreak of war and out went polo. In the four years the whole of the industry would be affected; the breeders, the players and the facilities. Polo was indoctrinated in the army's way of life and fully supported by Field Marshall Earl Haig. Publication of the Polo Monthly kept readers informed of the Roll of Honour. 707 players made the Supreme Sacrifice.

170mm by 240mm 368 pages. over 650 photos

[Steven Broomfield]

Trevor, might one enquire how many of one's English pounds one will need to invest to obtain a copy?

[nigelcave]

According to Messrs A*, change from £17, incl P&P. It looks as though it should be excellent value for money

[Guest]

Can I ask if it only focused the fallen Polo Players? ... or do the surviving players feature? MG

[Steven Broomfield]

According to Messrs A*, change from £17, incl P&P. It looks as though it should be excellent value for money

I would have checked myself, but I fear Mrs Broomfield has been pottering through my browser history.

[tharkin56]

Hi

Martin G, the first section is a month by month account, and covers some of the reports on the injured and photos of men who were injured. The Roll of Honour covers the 707 men. A to Z and finally a chronological order of the Fallen.

Please direct message me and I will give you a non-amazon price, I self publish to keep costs affordable, some.

Plus the fact I need to wait before I get stock back 7 to 10 days.

Without the forum wouldn't have been complete as it was.

It took three years to write, obviously part time.

I am encouraged by the comments, next book. Bomber Boys 206 Coventry Men.

I ended up indexing the photos in the whole of War Illustrated to make the task easier.

Trevor

[tharkin56]

Oops did not click add file

[PhilB]

I would have checked myself, but I fear Mrs Broomfield has been pottering through my browser history.

Windows XP has "In Private Browsing". I believe it is useful in such circumstances for gentlemen who do not wish to cause their ladies undue concern.

[Steven Broomfield]

Message sent.

Windows XP has "In Private Browsing". I believe it is useful in such circumstances for gentlemen who do not wish to cause their ladies undue concern.

I was really mentioning it for a friend.

[Steven Broomfield]

My copy of this book has just arrived (purchased at the author's price!); this can't, therefore, be a proper review, but at first sight it's well worth the money.

I have only ever watched one polo match and understood absolutely nothing. It was a demonstration match and the game is (I suspect) very much one that appeals to the 'in crowd', pretty much to the exclusion of the outsider: the actions of the commentator, obviously on first-name terms with all the riders (and, I suspect, suffering from the effects of a heavy lunch in the Officers' Mess earlier) only served to exclude the unknowledgable.

That said, there is no gainsaying the bravery of the performer: it looks an extremely dangerous sport, and Trevor's book serves as a splendid memorial to those players of the game who made the supreme sacrifice in the Great War.

The book's first 80+ pages consist of extracts from the magazine The Polo Monthly published during the war, followed by 8 pages of coverage of Douglas Haig from the same publication - and then just under 250 pages of biographies - of varying length, obviously - of polo players who fell. Most (nearly all) have photographs.

On first inspection there are a few glitches (the "17th Hussars" and a reference to "The Dragoon Guards" rather than to the King's Dragoon Guards) and a couple of typos, but nothing I've seen has been too annoying!

For me the main interest is in the biographical detail of the large numbers of cavalry officers listed, but for the price available from the author, this is an excellent "dip in" book. For the more serious student of polo, I'd say it's a must-have.

Highly recommended - and given the number of usual suspects from the Forum in the acknowledgements, I'd say there is little doubt of the accuracy of the information included.