Polo in England, from Hounslow Heath to the Gold Cup.

1869: hockey on horseback

The Hurlingham Polo Association (HPA) dates English polo to 1869. That year Edward "Chicken" Hartopp of the 10th Hussars read an account of the game in The Field and organised the first match, then called "hockey on horseback", against the 9th Lancers. HorsePower, the museum of The King's Royal Hussars in Winchester, says Captain Hartopp read the article, about the game in India, while on manoeuvres at Aldershot, and that the first inter-regimental game was played on Hounslow Heath.

The Field adds detail. It says the 10th Hussars won, that the early English game was played eight a side, and that cavalry chargers proved unsuitable, so about 17 ponies of roughly 12.2 hands were brought over from Ireland. The HorsePower museum also says the officers ordered ponies from Ireland and improved the sticks and ball.

The venue is disputed. The HPA, the HorsePower museum and The Field all place the first match on Hounslow Heath. A Hurlingham Club archive piece, which we saw only as a search summary because the page itself was unavailable, says the 10th Hussars challenged the 9th Lancers at Aldershot. In 2019 British polo marked its 150th anniversary, counting from the 1869 match, Poloplus10 reports.

Polo was already moving through the services. The Field says naval officers took the game to Malta in 1868. In England, the HPA says, the 1st Life Guards and the Royal Horse Guards soon took it up at Hounslow and Richmond Park, and then at Lillie Bridge near Earls Court.

The first clubs

The Field says the first English polo club was founded in 1872 by Captain Francis "Tip" Herbert of the 7th Lancers, at Clytha Park in Monmouthshire. The first players, it says, used heavy sticks held upside down before settling on a single stick held in the right hand.

In Ireland, the Phoenix Park visitors' guide says the All Ireland Polo Club was founded in 1873 by Horace Rochfort of Clogrenane, and calls it the oldest polo club in Europe. A Carlow genealogy page gives 1872 instead.

Hurlingham and the first rules

The HPA says the first polo match at the Hurlingham Club in London was played in 1874. The club's archive, as summarised in a search result, gives the date as 6 June 1874 and the teams as the Royal Horse Guards (the Blues) and the 1st Life Guards. Hurlingham's tournaments followed: the Champion Cup from 1876, the Inter-Regimental and the Oxford v Cambridge match from 1878, and the County Cup from 1885, according to the HPA.

Hurlingham became the headquarters of the game. The HPA says the Hurlingham Polo Committee drew up the first English rules in 1875 and governed polo for about thirty years. Other sources give different dates for those rules:

• The HPA says 1875, and counts its own history from that year.
• Wikipedia's Hurlingham Club article says the club published rules in 1873.
• Historic UK says the rules were revised in 1874 into the Hurlingham Rules, which limited the size of teams.

Rules were also being written in India. Historic UK and The Field credit Captain John Watson of the 13th Hussars, an Irishman, with drawing up early rules and shaping the modern game there in the 1870s. The HPA's results also list a John Watson at back for Great Britain in the first Westchester Cup, in 1886.

Hurlingham hosted the polo at the 1908 Olympic Games and staged the Westchester Cup in 1900, 1902, 1909, 1921 and 1936, according to Wikipedia, which also says its polo grounds were compulsorily purchased by Fulham council for housing after the Second World War.

From committee to the HPA

The HPA's own history traces how the committee became a national association:

• 1898: the County Polo Association was formed to look after the country clubs and run the County Cup.
• 1903: the Hurlingham Club Polo Committee was enlarged to include the Services, the County Polo Association, the three London clubs (Hurlingham, Ranelagh and Roehampton) and associations across the Empire.
• 1925: the committee was renamed the Hurlingham Polo Association.
• 1939: the last Champion Cup at Hurlingham. The war ended the London season.
• 1949: the County Polo Association merged into the HPA.
• 1955: the last year of the Roehampton Open and County Cup at Roehampton. Ham is now the only surviving London club.

The post-war revival

The HPA lists Viscount Cowdray as its chairman from 1952 to 1967 and credits him with leading the revival of British polo after the war. In its tribute to Prince Philip, the HPA says the prince helped Lord Cowdray restart the game from 1951, and became the association's patron in 1952. The royal polo page covers his part in more detail.

Two of England's great tournaments date from this period. The Gold Cup for the British Open Championship was first played at Cowdray Park in 1956, and the first winner was Indios. The Queen's Cup was first played in 1960 on the Queen's Ground at Guards, at Windsor.

The HPA today

The HPA describes itself as the governing body for polo in the UK, Ireland and many other countries. It sets the rules, handicaps players in the UK and Ireland and keeps the fixtures list. Its year book says there are now more than seventy outdoor and arena clubs and associations in the UK and Ireland, with most Commonwealth countries and many overseas clubs affiliated. It names the main high-goal venues as Cowdray Park, Cirencester Park, Guards (Windsor Park) and the Royal County of Berkshire. The HPA's "about polo" page says the association helped spread the game internationally, including to Argentina, the United States and Australia.

HPA chairman Will Lucas wrote in December 2024 that 2025 would be the association's 150th anniversary year, counting from 1875. For how the HPA fits alongside the other national bodies today, see governing bodies.