Herbert Haydon WILSON

Captain Herbert Wilson was a figure of much influence in polo circles and maintained a fine home at Hurlingham, where he served as a member of the Hurlingham Committee, the governing body of polo. He often played at the neighboring club, Roehampton, and it was with their team that he won his Olympic gold medal in 1908. Of the winning Olympic team in 1908, only Wilson had not already played in the Westchester Cup although he was to do so in 1909 and 1911. Wilson also won the All-Ireland Open, the Army Cup, Ranelagh Open, Roehampton Cup, Public Schools’ Cup, and the Hurlingham Champion Cup, amongst others. He was also a keen huntsman and rode with the Quorn, the Cottesmore and Belvoir from his country residence at Ashby Folville in Leicestershire.

Herbert Wilson was the son of Sir Samuel Wilson, an Irish-born landowner who moved to Australia in the mid-19th century with the purpose of mining for gold but turned to sheep grazing along with his brothers. Sir Samuel moved to England in 1881 and later became the MP for Portsmouth from 1886-92. He moved back to Australia in 1893, but two years later returned to England and died a few months thereafter. Wilson junior was educated at Eton and New College, Oxford. Soon after leaving Oxford he joined the Nottinghamshire Imperial Yeomanry, winning a DSO and Queen’s Medal in the Boer War. The fighting in South Africa, and later in France, took a cruel toll on the Wilson family. His brother Wilfred lost his life at the Boer War, whilst another brother Clarence was also severely wounded. In 1914-18 War, Herbert took a commission in the Royal Horse Guards and, along with his eldest brother, Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Wilson, MVO of the Royal Horse guards, was killed in action. Gordon was married to Lady Sarah Churchill, sister Sir Winston Churchill’s son Randolph. Hence only one of the four brothers survived the two wars, and he was gravely wounded.