Héctor Barrantes Sansoni
Born1939
Trenque Lauquen, Argentina
Died1990 (aged 50–51)
Buenos Aires, Argentina
OccupationPolo player
Spouse
​
(m. 1975)​
RelativesSarah, 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]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hector Barrantes, 51; Stepfather of Royal Family's 'Fergie', The Los Angeles Times, August 12, 1990
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Hector Barrantes, Argentine polo player, Bangor Daily News, August 13, 1990
  3. ↑ Horace A. Laffaye, The Evolution of Polo, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2009, pp. 113; 226-227
  4. 1 2 Jeannie Sakol, Caroline Latham, The Royals, Congdon & Weed, 1987, p. 21
  5. ↑ 'Argentine stepfather a dilemma', The Gainesville Sun, March 20, 1986
  6. ↑ Horace A. Laffaye, The Evolution of Polo, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2009, pp. 284
  7. ↑ Andrew Morton, Duchess: an intimate portrait of Sarah, Duchess of York, Contemporary Books, 1989, p. 26
  8. ↑ "Fergie mourns mum". BBC News. 22 September 1998. Retrieved 6 January 2017.
  9. ↑ Article from Infoecos mentioning the Copa Héctor Barrantes
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