Jean, Comte De Madre

Jean, Count de Madre, or simply Johnny as he was known in polo circles, did much for the sport in England where he mostly played in the early part of the 20th century. Having won the Paris International Tournament in 1897, he traveled to England and in 1900 won the Hunt Cup at Ranelagh with Pytchley and the County Cup at Hurlingham with Rugby and, back in Paris for the Olympic Games, he won a bronze medal with the BPO Polo Club. Other trophies he is credited with winning in England are the Roehampton Cup, Ranelagh Open Cup, Roehampton Junior Championship, Warwickshire Cup, Cirencester Challenge, Derbyshire Open, Ranelagh Junior Spring Cup and the Hurlingham Champion Cup. He also won the Paris Open in 1912.

Johhny was a 5-handicap player and is best associated with his own team, The Tigers, who were notable for wearing pure silk shirts with hand embroidered gold thread. He also insisted his team be mounted on ponies of identical colour, and in each chukker they should be mounted on a pony of a different colour from the previous chukker. He formed a team in India called the Indian Tigers and in their ranks were two 10-handicap players, Major Jaswant Singh and Colonel Jogindra Singh, and they won the their countries’ Prince of Wales Commemoration Tournament. De Madre brought them to England in 1923 and they attracted a lot of attention when they won the Coronation Cup at Ranelagh.

In addition to playing in England and India in the 1920s De Madre also played in France and the United States. He was the owner of many polo ponies, which he used to exhibit at shows around England a the turn of the century. He also owned racehorses and one of them, Old Town, took part in the 1904 Aintree Grand National. His older brother David was married to Marie, the only sister of Pierre, Baron de Coubertin.

As noted, Count de Madre played polo in many countries. He was definitely a French citizen in 1900 but played for the British club at the 1900 Olympics, BLO Polo Club, Rugby.