WhatsNew2Day – Latest News And Breaking Headlines
The latest royal to come into the world is Ernest George Ronnie Brooksbank, daughter of Princess Eugenie and grandson of the Duke and Duchess of York.
George is believed to be a tribute to Eugenie’s stepfather, father of her husband Jack Brooksbank.
But it is the third of these names, Ronnie, that has attracted the most attention, as it seems to be in memory of the late Major “Galoping” Ron, the colorful father and polo player of the grandmother of the baby, Sarah Ferguson.
While Ernest is just getting started, Major Ron has been through the ups and downs of a life lived to the fullest – a dashing figure known for a number of high society affairs.
Major Ronald Ferguson and his daughter, Sarah, Duchess of York, at a polo match in 1988
For 21 years, Ronald Ferguson was Prince Charles’ polo manager
The names of Princess Eugenie’s second son, Ernest George Ronnie, pay tribute to Fergie’s father, Major Ronald Ferguson
A talented polo player and former polo manager to the Prince of Wales, his 1994 autobiography was aptly titled The Galloping Major.
Born into country gentry, his early peaceful years were spent among horses and dogs while living, from the age of eight, on a 480-acre farm in Dummer, Hampshire.
He was educated at Eton and moved to Bishop’s Waltham before following a 19-year military career through Sandhurst and a commission in the Household Cavalry.
While at Sandhurst, he walked in the 1953 coronation procession with a thunderous hangover.
As a young officer, he later served as Captain of the Sovereign’s Escort in the Queen’s Trooping the Color Birthday Parade.
Perhaps carried away by enthusiasm, Ronald would have nearly eclipsed His Majesty.
It was reported that he was reprimanded by the late Queen Elizabeth when her horse masked her: “Stand back a bit, Ron – it was me they came to see, not you.”
As a lieutenant in the Life Guards, he married his first wife Susan Wright, an 18-year-old debutante, in November 1956 at St Margaret’s, Westminster. They then had two daughters, Jane and Sarah – grandmother to newborn Ernest.
(News of the birth was kept under wraps for a week until it was finally announced that the child was born on May 30 and weighed 7lbs 1oz. Sweet snap shows older brother August watching over Ernest Captioned: ‘Augie loves being a big brother already’)
A tryst with a colonel’s 23-year-old daughter led to the breakdown of Major Ron’s first marriage in 1972. His wife, Susan, sought solace in the arms of Argentine polo star Hector Barrantes.
He was educated at Eton before Sandhurst and after a 19-year military career
Prince Charles with Major Ronald Ferguson at a polo match on June 6, 1987
Ronald Ferguson pictured shaking hands with Princess Diana at a polo match in 1985
Sarah and Jane were still teenagers when Ronald and Susan divorced in 1974.
While raising his daughters as a single parent, the Major courted a string of society women, including Princess Diana’s mother, Frances Shand-Kydd, to whom he proposed marriage.
Mrs Shand-Kydd declined the offer and in 1976 he married his second wife, Susan Deptford. They then had three children, Andrew, Alice and Eliza.
After Ferguson retired in 1968, he devoted himself to polo, an interest that brought him into contact with the royal family.
Major Ferguson acted as unpaid polo manager to the Duke of Edinburgh before holding the same position for Charles, then Prince of Wales, for 21 years.
It was his role to arrange the Prince’s match schedule, fit them around his many official engagements, and look after the Prince’s horses and equipment.
The Duke and Duchess of York with Sarah’s father, Ronald Ferguson, and their daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, at the Windsor Horse Show
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with Ronald and members of the Royal Family on their wedding day
The Duchess of York on her wedding day to her father, Major Ronald Ferguson
It was through this connection that her daughter, Sarah Ferguson, the current Duchess of York met Prince Andrew.
Before their wedding in 1986, Sarah’s parents told the Washington Post that the couple had first met when they were just three years old – at a polo match that their fathers (Major Ronald and Prince Philip) were both competing against.
When, in 1988, the Galloping Majoar was photographed entering and leaving a London massage parlour, he quit his role as manager of the elite Guards Polo Club.
The major was fiercely protective of his daughter Sarah, nicknamed Fergie, whose marriage to Prince Andrew ended in divorce in 1996.
The Duchess said she made the decision so she could pursue a career independent of the Royal Family.
Major Ronald Ferguson at his home, Dummer Down Farm, Hampshire with his second wife Susan and daughter Eliza
Born into country gentry, his peaceful early years were spent living on a 480-acre farm in Dummer, Hampshire (pictured)
Sarah Duchess of York with her father Major Ronald Ferguson before her engagement to Prince Andrew was announced in March 1986
And Sarah, who showed her father’s fighting spirit in battling deep debt and personal despair after his divorce, adored her beloved father.
He wasn’t afraid to speak his mind, proving it when he lambasted royal courtiers, accusing them of undermining his daughter’s marriage.
Courting controversy while coveting privacy, he told a reporter: “I’m nobody. No one at all. I happen to be the Duchess of York’s father. I mean, that doesn’t make me terribly important, does it?
In 1993, Major Ferguson also got into trouble over his relationship with Lesley Player, a woman with whom he hosted an international women’s polo tournament, after he claimed to have had an affair with Ferguson.
In the face of poor health later in life, he displayed characteristic courage.
Major Ferguson was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1996 but, after radiation treatment, was cleared in 1998.
He championed the Prostate Cancer Coalition and helped launch the UK’s first Prostate Cancer Awareness Week, presenting a petition at 10 Downing Street calling for increased spending on research, early detection and treatment.
However, his cancer returned in 2001 but he faced the news with vigor. “I have no intention of dying yet,” he said.
“I still play cricket, go horse riding and lead a normal life as much as possible.”
Offering words of hope to other people with cancer and their families, he said: ‘You can never get used to that word, cancer, when it’s tied to a direct relationship.
“Cancer is something that strikes you right away and because you hear of so many cases of people dying from cancer, cancer is immediately linked to death.
Major Ronald Ferguson pictured with his dog at his home in Dummer, Hampshire
“But it doesn’t have to be, far from it in my case. It is not obligated.
In November 2002 he collapsed, after suffering a suspected heart attack, and was admitted to Basingstoke General Hospital.
He recovered after suffering a second heart attack on March 16, 2003, but after a long struggle his condition deteriorated and he died at the age of 71.
Eugenie’s new baby pays tribute to polo-mad ladies man, ‘Galloping’ Major Ron