Héctor Barrantes Explained

Héctor Barrantes Sansoni
Birth Date:1939
Birth Place:Trenque Lauquen, Argentina
Death Place:Buenos Aires, Argentina
Occupation:Polo player
Relatives:Sarah, Duchess of York (stepdaughter)

Héctor Barrantes Sansoni (1939–1990) was an Argentine polo player. He was the stepfather of Sarah, Duchess of York.

Biography

Early life

He was a member of the patrician Figueroa family, and was born in 1939 in Argentina. He was the son of Martín Barrantes Figueroa y Arias and Clelia Josefina Sansoni Pais, both born in Salta, Argentina. The Figueroa family descended directly from Francisco de Toledo y Figueroa (10 July 1515 – 15 August 1582) who was an aristocrat and soldier of the Kingdom of Spain and the fifth Viceroy of Peru.[1] [2]

Career

He started playing polo at the age of fifteen.[2] In 1967, he moved to England to play polo with Samuel Vestey, 3rd Baron Vestey in Stowell Park.[2] [3] In 1983, he was barred from the international polo field for a year for a bout of anger.[4]

Héctor Barrantes enlisted in the Argentine Army during the Falklands War of 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom, but did not fight.[5]

Later, he bred polo ponies on his 1,000-acre (400 ha) ranch in Guaminí, 335 miles (540 km) southwest of Buenos Aires.[2] His polo pony called Luna, which he bred on his ranch, won the Lady Townley Cup in 1989 and 1990, ridden by Gonzalo Pieres.[6]

Personal life

His first wife died in a car crash.[2] In 1974, he started an affair with Susan Ferguson, the mother of Sarah Ferguson, who divorced her husband Major Ronald Ferguson and left her two daughters in England.[2] [4] [7] In 1975, they married in a civil ceremony in Argentina.[2] They resided on a polo ranch in Guaminí, Argentina.[1] [2]

Death

He died of cancer in August 1990.[1] [2] He was buried, initially, in the Peace Garden cemetery in Buenos Aires.[2] Later he was reinterred in a vault under his home and next to a polo field on his 'El Pucara' estate where, in 1998, his widow Susan was buried following her death, also from a car crash.[8]

Honours

A major polo trophy in Argentina has been named in Barrantes's honour, the Copa Héctor Barrantes.[9]

Notes and References

  1. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-08-12-mn-1053-story.html Hector Barrantes, 51; Stepfather of Royal Family's 'Fergie'
  2. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2457&dat=19900813&id=OKxJAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jQ4NAAAAIBAJ&pg=1216,4044459 Hector Barrantes, Argentine polo player
  3. Horace A. Laffaye, The Evolution of Polo, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2009, pp. 113; 226-227
  4. Jeannie Sakol, Caroline Latham, The Royals, Congdon & Weed, 1987, p. 21 https://books.google.com/books?id=uHNWAAAAYAAJ&q=%22hector+barrantes%22
  5. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1320&dat=19860320&id=pKkRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6-kDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6804,1191235 'Argentine stepfather a dilemma'
  6. Horace A. Laffaye, The Evolution of Polo, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2009, pp. 284
  7. [Andrew Morton (writer)|Andrew Morton]
  8. News: Fergie mourns mum. BBC News. 22 September 1998. 6 January 2017.
  9. http://www.infoecos.com.ar/index.php/juan-martin-nero-capella-barbucci-sebastian-merlos-y-novillo-astrada-en-la-copa-hector-barrantes-de-polo/ Article from Infoecos mentioning the Copa Héctor Barrantes