HIPWOOD, Howard John 1950-2023
Richard R
He m 1985 Lady Camilla Diana FANE b 1957 d of 15th Earl of WESTMORLAND 1924-93 and Jane Barbara 1928-2009 d of Lt-Col Sir Roland Lewis FINDLAY 3rd Bt 1903-79 and Barabara Joan 1903-89 d of Maj Henry (Harry) Sebastian GARRARD 1868-1946 and May Eleanor CAZENOVE 1869-1955 scion of that gentry family of Cottesbrooke, and had a son and a dau.
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Howard Hipwood, formidable England polo captain known as ‘the bionic arm’ – obituary
‘He storms on to the field like a god and thunders down the pitch taking no prisoners,’ wrote Jilly Cooper
Howard Hipwood, who has died aged 73, was often described as the country’s most famous polo player after the King; despite hailing from outside the sport’s natural milieu, he was one of its greatest representatives, playing off a handicap of nine goals for more than a decade.
He took part in the revival of the Coronation Cup in 1971, captained England to victory in the US Open, was twice finalist in the Argentine Open, and was on the winning team in all the principal English tournaments, including the Cowdray Gold Cup and the Cartier Queen’s Cup….
Howard John Hipwood was born on March 24 1950 in Karachi, Pakistan, the second of three children of Brian Hipwood, who was stationed there with the RAF, and his wife Marion, née Brice, who weaned him with buffalo milk.
The family returned to England when he was four and his father became owner of a garage in Chalford, near Stroud in Gloucestershire. Soon the brothers were riding ponies on their grandfather’s smallholding at nearby Minchinhampton. “Julian and I used to take them out and play cowboys and Indians, jump fences, enter gymkhanas or do cross-country,” he recalled….
In 1972 he married Gill Drennan. They had two children, Oliver, who also played polo for England, and Jessica. That was dissolved, and in 1985 he married Lady Camilla Fane, daughter of the Earl and Countess of Westmorland. They also had two children, Rosanna, who was part of Prince Harry’s set, and Sebastian; that marriage was also dissolved.
Howard Hipwood is survived by his children.
Howard Hipwood, born March 24 1950, died June 6 2023
Richard R
Obit in the Times of 4 July 2023:
E X T R A C T
Howard Hipwood obituary
England polo captain who played with the future King and was admired by Jilly Cooper as he ‘stormed on to the field like a god’
… He was not from the monied background of a good many others in the sport and it did not make him a rich man. Nonetheless, he became a polo pin-up and continued to play until he was 65…
…[The novelist Jilly] Cooper said that Hipwood, who played with Prince Charles and married into the aristocracy, was “strong and dazzling. He storms on to the field like a god, straight-backed like a Prussian officer, and thunders down the pitch taking no prisoners.” Tatler concentrated on his “huge, sun-tanned” hands, “his wrists bursting out of his pale blue Turnbull & Asser shirt. Hipwood, it seems, needs tough cufflinks. On horseback, his immense strength is even more brazen.”…
… Howard John Hipwood was born in Karachi, Pakistan, the second of three children of Brian Hipwood, who was stationed there with the RAF, and his wife, Marion (née Brice), who weaned him on buffalo milk. The family returned to England when he was four. His father bought a garage in Chalford in Gloucestershire…
… Hipwood’s first wife was Gill Drennan and the second Lady Camilla Fane. Both marriages were dissolved. He is survived by them both and the children of his first marriage, Oliver, who also played polo for England, and Jessica, who works for a mobile phone company in Bristol, and by the children of his second marriage, Rosanna, who founded The Luxury Safari Company in 2010, and Sebastian, an estate agent…
Howard Hipwood, polo player, was born on March 24, 1950. He died of cancer on June 6, 2023, aged 73
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/howard-hipwood-obituary-r5dnvbz7b