Ten times the player

These days, a polo player with a handicap of 10 is most likely to be South American, with little to do but play polo. However, in 1912, when Major ‘Rattle’ Barrett achieved the seemingly unachievable, he was an amateur and played the sport to fill the time between his duties as a major in the 15th Hussars.

Born in County Cork in 1875 to an Anglo- Irish family, Frederick Whitfield Barrett was a keen horseman throughout his youth, until his eventual gazetting into the 15th Hussars. He achieved his captaincy in 1905, a year after marrying the Honorable Isobel Edwardes. He was a successful polo player for his regiment, but it wasn’t his primary sport at that time and he was known more as a steeplechaser. It was his horse-bound exploits, more specifically his habit of breaking bones, that earned him the nickname ‘Rattle’.

In 1910, he helped Count Jean de Madre’s Tigers in their journey to the runners-up spot in the Champion Cup. Then, in 1913, he and the 15th Hussars rode to a resounding victory over the 20th Hussars in the final of the inter-regimental tournament. It is clear that the Captain Barrett of those days was a man of great physical talent, but his polo career started in earnest only when his regiment was posted to India. Throughout the posting, which coincided with a visit to the colony from new king and emperor George V (along with fellow soldiers he was given a Delhi Durbar Medal to mark the occasion), Barrett served as ADC to Major General Bryan Mahon.

It was during the following season that Barrett reached the rarified heights of a 10-goal handicap – the first British man to do so. He had injured himself again, this time badly enough to end his steeplechasing career, so polo became his principal sport. In terms of success on the pitch, this was certainly his most prolific period, culminating in perhaps his most impressive achievement of all, when he captained the team that thrashed America in the 1914 International Polo Cup. There were two other 10-goalers in that squad – Captain Leslie Cheape and Captain Vivian Lockett – great players who, tragically, were later to die at the Turkish front.

By now a Major, Barrett returned from the World War l physically unscathed, but almost certainly emotionally drained, particularly as so many of his fellow players, and opponents, had lost their lives. As tragic as that must have been, it didn’t put a stop to his sporting achievements and he went on to win Olympic gold for Britain at the Antwerp games in 1920, then Olympic bronze at the 1924 games in Paris. Between the wars, he began training and riding racehorses for British royalty, jockeying for George V, Edward Vlll and George Vl.

Major Frederick Barrett passed away in 1949 and was buried near his wife and daughter, who had tragically died within a year of one another a few years earlier. To this day, teams compete for the Barrett Cup at Cowdray Park, in honour of one of polo’s unique characters and true greats. It is fair to say that they broke the mould when they made ‘Rattle’ Barrett.