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Geoffrey Phipps Hornby

Sir Geoffrey Thomas Phipps Hornby (10 February 1825 – 3 March 1895) was a British Royal Navy officer.

Biography[]

Born the son of Admiral Sir Phipps Hornby and Sophia Maria Hornby (daughter of General John Burgoyne), Hornby was educated at Winwick Grammar School and Southwood's School in Plymouth and joined the Royal Navy in March 1837. As a junior officer, he saw action at the capture of Acre in November 1840 during the Egyptian–Ottoman War.

As a captain, he was assigned to Vancouver Island with a naval brigade where he found a unit of United States troops ready to take over the San Juan Islands in a dispute that became known as the Pig War. Hornby used his powers of diplomacy to facilitate a peaceful handover of the islands to the United States.

Hornby went on to be Commander-in-Chief, West Africa Squadron, Commander-in-Chief of the Flying Squadron and then Commander-in-Chief, Channel Squadron. After that he became Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet, President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich and finally Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth.

He was appointed to the staff of the German emperor Wilhelm II during his visits to England in 1889 and 1890. He retired in February 1895 and died of influenza at Lordington House on 3 March 1895; his ashes were scattered at Compton Church.

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