Charles Palmer-Tomkinson

Charles Palmer-Tomkinson was a member of a famous skiing family represented at seven of the ten Winter Olympics between 1936-48. His father James competed in 1936 and 1948 while his brother Jeremy competed in the four Games between 1968-80. Charles was selected for the 1964 Innsbruck Winter Olympics where he finished 56th in the downhill and was disqualified in the slalom.

Palmer-Tomkinson was a good friend of several members of the British Royal Family, and in particular HRH Prince Charles, later King Charles III, who was Godfather to Palmer-Tomkinson´s socialite daughter Tara. Palmer-Tomkinson taught the young Prince to ski. At Klosters, Switzerland in 1988, while skiing with the Prince, their party was involved in a horrific accident when an avalanche struck. It injured Palmer-Tomkinson´s wife Patti but sadly killed Major Hugh Lindsay, an equerry to Queen Elizabeth at the time. Fortunately, Prince Charles escaped unhurt. The accident happened not far away from where Palmer-Tomkinson´s own father was killed in an accident in 1952.

Educated at Eton and later at the Cirencester Agricultural College, Palmer-Tomkinson won the 1957 British Junior Skiing Championship at the age of 16. In 1960 he won the slalom title at the Lowland Championship in Austria and was then third in the British Men’s Ski Championship. Palmer-Tomkinson won the British title in 1961 when he beat the [Aga Khan] (/athletes/83489) into second place. Despite winning the downhill title in 1962 he was the overall runner-up to his younger brother Christopher. Another brother, Jeremy, was the 1965 and 1966 champion, which meant four members of the Palmer-Tomkinson family, including the siblings´ father, had won the British title. In 1990 Palmer-Tomkinson was appointed the High Sheriff of Hampshire.