Princess’s sport club looks at claims of behaviour

A SPORTS club where the Princess of Wales plays tennis is investigating two incidents of “inappropriate behaviour”, it has been reported.

Two members of the £1,400-a-year Hurlingham Club, in west London, have been disciplined after the apparently lewd incidents.

Prince George, 10, takes tennis lessons at the exclusive private members’ club, which overlooks the Thames in Fulham and is a popular society venue.

The late Prince Philip was patron of the club and often played polo on its extensive 42-acre grounds.

The first incident is said to have occurred in the club’s mixed-gender sauna, where the club says a member “made inappropriate comments of a sexual nature to a fellow member”.

Club bosses have issued a “formal reprimand” to the individual, whose identity has not been disclosed.

Club chiefs circulated a memo to members via email warning against similar behaviour and put up a cautionary notice in its Georgian-style clubhouse. Another member has been handed an outright ban from the club after a second, unrelated incident, which the Daily Mail reported involved unspecified “inappropriate behaviour”.

Hurlingham, long a favourite sporting and social haunt for society’s high rollers, has begun a crackdown on “unacceptable” behaviour of late.

The club has established a “conduct committee” as part of a broader push against indecency.

Hurlingham describes itself as “one of the world’s finest private member clubs” and a “green oasis of tradition and international renown”.

The club was founded in 1869 and was popular with Edward VII. In the 1870s it published the rules of the sport of polo, which remain in use to this day.

The Hurlingham Club was approached for comment.

The first incident is said to involve ‘inappropriate comments’ in the club’s mixed-gender sauna