Charles’ polo days were marked by both glamour and injury.
In 1990, then-Prince Charles, 42, spent a week in hospital after breaking his elbow in a match that required a three-hour operation, and nurse Gail Burbage recalled that he remained remarkably personable throughout his stay.
Burbage said: “It was an honor to care for him. He was personable, chatty – the ideal patient. Of course, we had certain protocol we had to follow, but he kept it all light-hearted and made it easy for us.”
She added: “I went to the ward next door to get a menu. We came up with a plan to order a meal for him using a made-up name so no-one would know it was for the Prince. He ate it off the plastic trays we used at the time. He said it was really well-balanced.”
The nurse said Charles also took time to speak to hospital staff, adding: “When he was able to start moving around, he would stop and speak to everyone – nurses, doctors, porters, cleaners – he wanted to know how we operated.”
Harry also described a more dramatic polo accident involving his ‘Pa’ Charles, writing: “As a boy, I’d seen Pa take (a hard) fall, the horse giving way, the ground simultaneously smacking and swallowing him. I remembered thinking: ‘Why’s Pa snoring?’ And then someone yelling, ‘He’s swallowed his tongue!'”
He concluded: “A quick-thinking player jumped from his horse and saved Pa’s life.”