Lt-Cdr John Oram RIP

Kyt · Jun 26, 2008

Lt-Cdr John Oram - Telegraph

Lieutenant-commander John Oram, who has died aged 85, served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, then, aged 26, took up riding, making an impression at polo, on the hunting field and in three-day eventing.

John Somerville Kendal Oram was born on March 10 1923 at Southsea, the son of a submariner. He was brought up at the village of Morden, Dorset, and in 1936 entered the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, as a 13-year-old cadet.

Four years later he joined the battleship Hood as a midshipman, moving to another battleship shortly before Hood encountered Bismarck in the Denmark Strait and was sunk with only three survivors. He then served in two destroyers escorting convoys to Murmansk.

In 1945 Oram went to the signals school at HMS Mercury, near Portsmouth, and three years later married Juliet Abbey, with whom he was to have a daughter. Initially, the young couple lived on Malta, where Oram was serving at the headquarters of Lord Mountbatten, Flag Officer commanding 1st Cruiser Squadron, Mediterranean Fleet.

Mountbatten urged Oram – who had never before ridden a horse – to take up polo, which he did to such effect that he was selected as the fourth member of a team alongside Mountbatten, the Duke of Edinburgh (who was commanding a frigate of the Mediterranean Fleet) and Robert de Pass, Mountbatten's flag lieutenant.

After leaving the Navy, Oram continued to ride. Remarkably, in 1952 he was selected as reserve for the British three-day event equestrian team at the Stockholm Olympics, and he was also selected as reserve in Rome (1956) and Helsinki (1960), at all of which the team won gold medals.

He had trained with the team under Tony Collins and Frank Weldon, who wanted the brilliant horse Philippa, belonging to Juliet Oram, in the team. Juliet is said to have told them they could have Philippa so long as they took her husband as well – but John Oram earned his selection as reserve on his own merits.

On one occasion he was invited by an owner to ride in the Grand National, but the horse went lame – to Oram's considerable relief. He rode several times in the Badminton horse trials.

Hunting became another consuming interest. The Orams bought a farm in Herefordshire, but also took a house in Cirencester while he attended the Royal Agricultural College to learn about farming.

While at Cirencester he whipped in to the VWH; later he became master of the North Hereford Hunt. He and his wife then bought a house in Dorset so that he could become master of the Cattistock.

The couple's marriage was dissolved in the 1960s, and John Oram married secondly, in 1968, Olivia Harvey-Evers. They were to have two daughters, and Oram named each of them after his beloved hounds: they were christened Catherine Danger and Isobel Gaily.

From 1973 Oram worked for 15 years as speech writer to Lord King, chairman of British Airways. He also acted as equestrian adviser in the making of the film International Velvet (1978).

During this period he and his second wife lived at Bulbridge House, Wilton, near Salisbury, before moving, in 1999, to the nearby village of Burcombe.

They shared Bulbridge with four whippets as well as two ridgebacks which terrified their friends but failed to intimidate housebreakers – when Bulbridge was burgled, both guard dogs lay on their backs in front of the fire.

In 1976 Oram inaugurated the Wilton Horse Trials, now an established event. He was a keen shot and enjoyed golf, despite the risk of encountering alligators on the fairway near his holiday house in Florida.

John Oram died on May 5. He is survived by his second wife, the daughter of his first marriage, the two daughters of his second and a step-daughter. His eldest daughter is Miranda, Countess of Pembroke, widow of the 17th Earl of Pembroke.
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Pathfinder · Jun 27, 2008

RIP John Oram

Antipodean Andy · Jul 13, 2008

Lucky man getting off the Hood when he did. Would have felt a huge sense of loss though. RIP.

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