Geoffrey Hornby - Children and Reputation

Children and Reputation

By his wife, who predeceased him, he left several children, daughters and sons, one of whom, a major in the artillery, won the Victoria Cross in South Africa in 1900. His life was written by his daughter, Mrs Fred. Egerton, (1896). Although almost his entire career was spent in peacetime, Hornby was regarded as not only an able administrator but also a brilliant handler of ships who did most to evolve new tactics as the navy finally abandoned sail for steam power, turret ships, and the threat of the torpedo. Sir John Fisher, who served under him in the Mediterranean, wrote that he was 'the finest Admiral afloat since Nelson. There never lived a more noble character or a greater seaman. He was incomparable'. He was also regarded as an intellectual among naval officers, very widely read. The naval historian Sir William Laird Clowes, who knew him well, wrote that '... he was a natural diplomatist, and an unrivalled tactician; and, to a singular independence and uprightness of character, he added a mastery of technical detail, and a familiarity with contemporary thought and progress that were unusual in those days among officers of his standing'.