American champion polo player
Devereux Milburn
|
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Devereux_Milburn_on_Time_Magazine_%28cropped%29.jpg) |
Occupation
| Lawyer
,
polo
player
|
---|
Born
| (
1881-09-19
)
September 19, 1881
Buffalo, New York
, U.S.
|
---|
Died
| August 15, 1942
(1942-08-15)
(aged 60)
Westbury, New York
, U.S.
|
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Resting place
| Locust Valley Cemetery
,
Locust Valley, New York
, U.S.
|
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|
Westchester Cup
(1909, 1911, 1913, 1921, 1924, 1927)
|
|
Cover of
Time
magazine (September 5, 1927)
Inducted into the National Polo
Hall of Fame
(1990)
|
Devereux Milburn
(September 19, 1881 ? August 15, 1942) was an American champion polo player in the early to mid twentieth century.
[1]
He was one of a group of Americans known as the
Big Four
in international polo, winning the
Westchester Cup
six times.
[2]
He is "remembered as possibly the best polo player this country ever produced."
[3]
His given name has been alternatively spelled as "Devereaux" in some publications.
Early life
[
edit
]
Milburn was born September 19, 1881, in
Buffalo, New York
.
[1]
He was the son of
New York
lawyer and politician
John George Milburn
, born in England, and Mary Patty Stocking, a teacher and the daughter of farmers in Wyoming County, New York. He had two younger brothers, John G. Milburn Jr., born in 1882; and Ralph, born in 1888.
[3]
His father, a lawyer with the firm of
Carter Ledyard & Milburn
, was notably the chairman of the
Pan-American Exposition
in Buffalo in 1901, where President
William McKinley
was fatally shot by an assassin. McKinley was taken to the Milburn family home, where he died. Devereux Milburn was not present at the time.
Milburn entered
Lincoln College, Oxford
in 1899
[4]
alongside his brother John George Milburn Jr., where he gained a rowing
blue
. He was also on the university swimming team. Thirdly, he guided the
Oxford University Polo
team to victory in successive Varsity matches, winning by a margin of 14 goals on both occasions. He sometimes swam competitively and played polo against the same university on the same day.
[5]
Career
[
edit
]
Milburn (left) and C.F. Holmes in 1917 at Chatel-Chehery.
During
World War I
, Milburn served as a major in the field artillery in France.
[1]
He served as an
Aide-de-camp
for Major-General James H. McRae at
Chatel-Chehery
in 1917. He later practiced law at his father's firm
Carter Ledyard & Milburn
. His brother John G. Milburn Jr. also went into law.
[3]
Milburn was one of the
Big Four
who played polo internationally against the United Kingdom in the early 20th century. He participated on teams that won the
Westchester Cup
six times. He is "remembered as possibly the best polo player this country ever produced."
[3]
Milburn was featured on the cover of
Time
magazine on September 5, 1927, and was referenced in an article on the upcoming polo season in that edition.
Personal life
[
edit
]
On November 1, 1913, Milburn was married to Nancy Gordon Steele (1894?1955)
[6]
in the little stone Church of the Advent in
Westbury
on
Long Island
.
[7]
[8]
Nancy, a
Chapin School
graduate, was the daughter of
Charles Steele
, a partner in
J. P. Morgan and Company
, and a sister of Kathryne Nevitt Steele (the wife of
Francis Skiddy von Stade Sr.
) and Eleanor Steele (the wife of Hall Clovis and Emmet P. Reese
[9]
).
[10]
Together, Nancy and Dev were the parents of two daughters and two sons:
[1]
- Nancy Gordon Milburn (1914?1952),
[11]
who married Arthur Delano Weekes Jr. (1908?1981)
[12]
in 1938.
[13]
- Katharyn S. Milburn, a
Vassar College
graduate who married Lorenzo Taylor,
[14]
and lived in
Buenos Aires
,
Argentina
.
[6]
[15]
- Devereux Milburn Jr. (1917?2000), who married Elizabeth Clarke Hinckley (1913?2005). He also attended
Lincoln College, Oxford
and was a sportsman who became a
Wall Street
lawyer.
[16]
- John Milburn (1918?1942), who married Ruth Harris in 1941. He became a combat pilot in
World War II
,
[17]
and died in an airplane crash in Virginia in December 1942, four months after his father's death.
[18]
After his death, his widow remarried to Capt. Gaston Meredith Fox.
[19]
Milburn's main residence was in
Old Westbury, New York
, on Long Island. Called Sunridge Hall, it was built on the North Shore near his in-laws' estate. Milburn also maintained a residence at
627 Magnolia St
. in
Aiken, SC
in the Gilded Age
Aiken Winter Colony
. The Aiken Winter Colony was at the nexus of the start of polo in the United States and was a primary center for polo in the early 1900s.
[20]
Milburn died on August 15, 1942, at the age of 60 of a
heart attack
, while playing golf at the
Meadowbrook Polo Club
in
Westbury, Long Island
.
[1]
In popular culture
[
edit
]
Paul Auster
's true-story collection,
True Tales of American Life
, includes a work about a visit by Milburn's son John and two Air Force colleagues to the family home on
Long Island
.
[21]
The story was first featured on
NPR
's
National Story Project
on
All Things Considered
.
[22]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
"Devereux Milburn Dies Playing Golf"
.
The New York Times
. August 16, 1942.
Devereux Milburn, the greatest back to ever play polo, died of heart disease at 6 o'clock tonight on the ninth tee of the
Meadow Brook Club
here, where he had been playing golf. He would have been 61 years old next month.
- ^
"Devereux Milburn"
.
Westchester Cup
. Archived from
the original
on March 16, 2012
. Retrieved
March 30,
2011
.
In 1909 Devereux Milburn played in his first international match with Harry Payne Whitney, Lawrence Waterbury and Monte Waterbury on what would come to be known as the Big Four.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"The Milburns and Their Famous Home: 1168 Delaware Avenue"
,
Western New York Heritage
, Archive, 2017
- ^
Matriculation register of Lincoln College, Oxford,
accessed
via archive website 24 July 2023.
- ^
E.D. Miller:
Fifty Years of Sport
. London: Hurst & Blackett 1923, p. 240.
- ^
a
b
"Mrs. Devereux Milburn"
.
The New York Times
. November 10, 1955
. Retrieved
March 8,
2019
.
- ^
"The Autumn Wedding Bells Are Ringing; Numerous Nuptials Fixed for Town and Country During October -- Harvest of Notable Engagements -- Plans for Miss Steele's Wedding to Devereux Milburn On Nov. 1"
.
The New York Times
. September 28, 1913
. Retrieved
March 8,
2019
.
- ^
"Devereux Milburn Weds Miss Steele; Polo Player Married to Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Steele at Westbury. Society in Little Church; Boy Choir Sings Before Ceremony;-Attendants and Guests;- Reception at Sunridge Hall"
(PDF)
.
The New York Times
. November 2, 1913
. Retrieved
March 8,
2019
.
- ^
Jensen, Joan M.; Patterson, Michelle Wick (2015).
Travels with Frances Densmore: Her Life, Work, and Legacy in Native American Studies
.
U of Nebraska Press
. p. 127.
ISBN
9780803274945
. Retrieved
March 8,
2019
.
- ^
"Steele Estate Value Set at $29,498,373 -- Ex-Morgan Partner Had Interest of $23,122,904"
.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle
. February 4, 1941. p. 11
. Retrieved
March 8,
2019
.
- ^
"Nancy Weeker, 38, Kin of Polo Star"
.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle
. October 25, 1952. p. 5
. Retrieved
March 8,
2019
.
- ^
"Arthur D. Weekes Jr. Is Dead; Senior Stockbroker Partner"
.
The New York Times
. August 31, 1981
. Retrieved
March 8,
2019
.
- ^
"Nancy Milburn and Arthur D. Weekes Jr. Are Married in Church at Westbury, L. I."
The New York Times
. August 4, 1938
. Retrieved
March 8,
2019
.
- ^
Vassar College Bulletin
.
Vassar College
. 1947. p. 217
. Retrieved
March 8,
2019
.
- ^
De Herrera, Nancy (2008).
Never Tango with a Stranger: Love in Peron's Argentina
. p. 141.
ISBN
9780595475940
. Retrieved
March 8,
2019
.
- ^
"Devereux Milburn, 82, Sportsman and Lawyer"
.
The New York Times
. January 15, 2000
. Retrieved
October 19,
2014
.
- ^
"John Milburn Joins Air Force"
.
The New York Times
. November 27, 1940
. Retrieved
March 8,
2019
.
- ^
"John Milburn Killed in Army Plane Crash; Member of Long Island Polo-Playing Family"
.
The New York Times
. December 3, 1942
. Retrieved
March 8,
2019
.
- ^
Company, Chesapeake and Ohio Railway; Railroad, Chesapeake and Ohio Railway; Railway, Pere Marquette (1947).
"Tracks"
. Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company: 61
. Retrieved
March 8,
2019
.
- ^
"Polo at Aiken. Larry Waterbury and Devereux Milburn Among the Many Players"
(PDF)
.
The New York Times
. March 23, 1913
. Retrieved
March 8,
2019
.
- ^
"The Ten-Goal Player" by Paul Ebeltoft, in Paul Auster (editor),
True Tales of American Life
, 2001, pp. 273?5
- ^
"National Story Project with Paul Auster, June 2000"
.
Weekend All Things Considered
. NPR
. Retrieved
October 19,
2014
.
External links
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]
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International
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National
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Other
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