Major General Joseph Ford Sherer, the Father of Polo.

A bust length portrait of Major General Joseph Ford Sherer [1829-1901]. A 6 x 4 ins copy photograph taken from a cased ambrotype in our pro=ivate collection and enlarged a little. The portrait shows him in later life after he had retired from India and was living in first the Channel Islands and then Hastings. He wears his Mutiny Medal before the one for the earlier Punjab Medal and we are not sure of the third medal. On his silver mefal for the 1877 Imperial Assemblage Medal he is named as a Colonel.  mar23

 Maj.-Gen.  Joseph Ford Sherer (1829-1901) was the son of Maj.-Gen. Sir George Moyle Sherer K.C.S.I and his wife Jane Baillie O’Halloran.  He was born on the 12th of April 1829 on board the H.E.I.C. vessel “Providence” when that ship was going through a terrible hurricane in the Bay of Biscay. Destined to follow his ancestors. he applied to join the East India Company’s Bengal Army on the 4th of February 1845, being nominated by Elliot Macnaughton on the recommendation of his maternal grandfather Major General Joseph O’Halloran, GCB. He was appointed Ensign in the  49^th Bengal Native Infantry on 21^st July 1848.

He married Charlotte Catherine, daughter of Colonel Philip Goldney on the10th of October 1853 at Simla, Bengal, India.

He became known as “Father of English Polo” for his pioneering efforts for the game in Cachar, Calcutta, and Manipur.

He died aged 72 on the 29th of July 1901 in his home The Residency, Church Road, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex