Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2011/January 2012 | Page 57

INTERVIEW

Michael puts
his success
down to good
fortune - and
the odd risk!
By Peter White
Michael Poland during his school days

Michael Poland feels he has been
blessed with good fortune through the
many facets of his active and highly
interesting life.
But it takes more than just the
occasional slice of good luck to
achieve what he has managed to
achieve. He has seized the moment,
taken the occasional risk, and used
his vast knowledge to lead a life that
has embraced insurance, farming,
conservation and highly successful
ventures into the worlds of horseracing
and cattle breeding.
He and his wife Carolyn enjoy
the trappings of a magnificent farm
house surrounded by a large acreage
of conservation land near Wroxall, a
main home in Hampshire and another
retreat near Oban in Scotland. Yet
he remains modest about the success
and the land he has accumulated. He
prefers to reflect on his achievements,
rather than boast about them.
At 74 years of age he may have
slowed down a little, but he still has
more targets in his eye line. Not so
long ago he was desperately close to
becoming the owner of the winning
horse in arguably the world’s most
famous Flat race, The Derby. That

unfulfilled dream still remains a
possibility.
So for this special two-part series,
Island Life met up with Michael
Poland at his Island home to discover
more about the former IW Master
of the Hunt, who likes nothing
more than wandering through his
magnificent fold of Highland cattle,
his true pride and joy.
“Am I wealthy, I don’t know? I
don’t have any stocks and shares;
all my money has gone into farm
land,” he revealed. “My father and
grandfather were very successful
Lloyds underwriters, and prior to that
the family were very successful furriers.
I didn’t inherit a lot of money from
my father, so I have done it myself – I
am mostly self made, and I am proud
of that.”
Michael was born and brought up
in Liphook, the youngest of five
children. His father Kenneth was an
underwriter and the youngest ever
member of the Committee of Lloyd's,
as well as Master of Beagles and a keen
sailor. The family business was left to
Michael’s two eldest brothers, but he
said: “It was good for me being at the
bottom, because it spurred me to do

something for myself, which I did.”
He attended prep school in Sussex,
and then Downside in Somerset before
travelling to learn French at a school
in Switzerland – he didn’t learn the
language, but recalls he had a ‘lovely
time’ in Lausanne.
“I never went to university which is
probably the best decision I ever made.
My father was a bit of an entrepreneur,
and was largely responsible for the
development of motor and household
content insurance in this country. He
had the ability to think outside the
box, which I think I inherited. He
met my mother Hester when she was
poaching for fish on my grandfather’s
estate, even though her father was a
high official in the Indian Civil Service
– Queen Victoria's representative in
the State of Hyderabad. I inherited a
great work ethic from my mother. She
had the mott