Michael Charles St John Hornby (2 January 1899 – 7 December 1987) was vice chairman of
WHSmith
WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and m ...
, the British retail chain, for over 20 years.
Michael Charles St John Hornby was the son of
St John Hornby and his wife Cicely Rachel Emily Barclay. In 1934, he purchased
Pusey House near
Faringdon
Faringdon is a historic market town in the Vale of White Horse, Oxfordshire, England, south-west of Oxford, north-west of Wantage and east-north-east of Swindon. It extends to the River Thames in the north; the highest ground is on the Ridg ...
in
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...
(now
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
) where he subsequently lived.
He was vice chairman of
WHSmith
WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and m ...
, the British retail chain from 1944 to 1965.
In 1960, following the verdict in favour of Penguin Books and the subsequent publication of ''
Lady Chatterley's Lover
''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' is the last novel by English author D. H. Lawrence, which was first published privately in 1928, in Italy, and in 1929, in France. An unexpurgated edition was not published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960, w ...
'', Hornby commented, "It will be stocked but it will not be on display. You will have to ask for it."
He married Nicolette Joan Ward (d. 1988), the daughter of Captain Hon. Cyril Augustus Ward and Baroness Irene de Brienen, the granddaughter of the
1st Earl of Dudley, on 15 November 1928. They lived at Pusey House, Faringdon, Berkshire, and had children:
* Susan Mary Hornby (19 October 1929 – 27 January 2005), who married
John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough in 1951. They had three children and were divorced in 1960. She married landowner Alan Cyril Heber-Percy (b. 1935) in 1962. They had one daughter in 1968 and were later divorced. She married industrialist John Osborne Gough, MBE (b. 1932) in 1983.
*
Sir Simon Michael Hornby (1934–2010)
* Charles Nicholas Hornby (1939–1996)
Arms
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hornby, Michael
1899 births
1987 deaths
People from Vale of White Horse (district)
Michael
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name "Michael"
* Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...
20th-century English businesspeople