John Wodehouse was born on 11 November 1883, the son of the 2nd Earl of Kimberley and Lady Isabel Geraldine Wodehouse.

Schooled at Eton, he inherited the title 3rd Earl of Kimberly and went up to Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he started playing polo, becoming a member of the Light Blue team. He was on the losing side in the polo match against Oxford in 1903, then captained the winning Cambridge team for the next two years.

He was elected as MP for Mid Norfolk in the 1906 General Election, the youngest Liberal candidate at 22 years 2 months old and sat in parliament until the 1910 General Election. During this period, he became a Justice of the Peace for Norfolk and won an Olympic polo silver medal with the Hurlingham team at the London 1908 Summer Olympics, also playing in the 1909 Westchester Cup match and was a member of the old Cantab’s team that won the Champion Cup in 1908, 1910, 1912, 1914,

He was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Norfolk Yeomanry in 1911 until the First World War. He then served as a captain in the 16th Lancers on the Western Front between 1914-17, then the Italian Front 1917-18. During the course of his military service he was wounded and twice mentioned in despatches, winning the Military Cross and Italian War Merit Cross while in Italy.

Post war he became assistant private secretary to the Colonial Secretary, Winston Churchill.

He married Francis Margaret Montagu on 5 May 1922 with his son John born on 12 May 1924.

His polo career also continued. He was the youngest member (aged 36) of the British Olympic team that won gold in the 1920 polo tournament held at Ostend. He played again in the 1921 Westchester Cup and also with the old Cantab’s team winning the 1921 Champion Cup, adding another title later with Harlequins in 1926.

With a 10-goal handicap, John Wodehouse was President of the Polo Pony Society in 1925. His many victories included the Ranelagh Open Cup, Roehampton Open Cup, All-Ireland Open, and the Coronation, Whitney, Social Clubs, County Polo Association Open, Rugby Open Cups; and the Monty Waterbury Cup, the Moreton Morrell Tournament and the Côte d’Azur Cups.

John was awarded the CBE in 1925 and entered the House of Lords in 1932 when he succeeded to his father’s hereditary peerage.

John Wodehouse died in April 1941 in an air raid while paying a rare visit to London from his Norfolk estates at 48 Jermyn Street, Westminster. He is commemorated on the CWGC roll of Civilian War Dead 1939-1945.