Richard Phipps Hornby (20 June 1922 – 22 September 2007) was a British Conservative politician and businessman. He was

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated population ...

for over 17½ years, from June 1956 to February 1974, holding a junior ministerial position for a year in the mid-1960s. He worked for the

J. Walter Thompson J. Walter Thompson (JWT) was an advertisement holding company incorporated in 1896 by American advertising pioneer James Walter Thompson. The company was acquired in 1987 by multinational holding company WPP plc, and in November 2018, WPP merge ...

advertising agency before, during, and after his career in Parliament, and was Chairman of the Halifax Building Society from 1983 to 1990.

Early and private life

Hornby was born in St Michael's on Wyre in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, the eldest son of

Hugh Hornby Hugh Leycester Hornby (20 November 1888 - 24 March 1965) was an Anglican clergyman. Hornby was born at St. Michael's-on-Wyre, near Preston, Lancashire. He was educated at Rugby School and Balliol College, Oxford. He was curate of St. Annes-o ...

. His father won a

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

as a military chaplain in France in 1916, and was Vicar of St Michael's on Wyre when Richard was born, later Rector of

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

and

Suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdictiona ...

Bishop of Hulme. Hornby was a scholar at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...

. He played occasional matches in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Bury F.C. Bury Football Club is an English association football club based in Bury, Greater Manchester, whose team last played in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of English football, in the 2018–19 season. The team are known as "The Shakers", and ...

as a teenager. He studied history at Trinity College, Oxford, winning a Blue for football. His studies were interrupted by five years of service as an officer in the

King's Royal Rifle Corps The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United St ...

in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He landed in France six weeks after

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

, fighting across France, the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

and into

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. He was involved in liberating concentration camps. After completing his studies after the war, he taught history at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

from 1948 to 1950. In 1951 he married the professional

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

Stella Hichens, who was the daughter of

Lionel Hichens William Lionel Hichens (1874–1940) was a British industrialist, chairman of Cammell Laird from 1910. Early life He was the second, posthumously-born son of John Ley Hichens, army surgeon, and his wife, Catherine Bacchus (1843–1924), and was kn ...

and the granddaughter of Sir Neville Lyttelton. They had three sons and one daughter. He spent a year as a marketing trainee with

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...

from 1951 to 1952, and then moved to the

advertising agency An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...

as a

copywriter Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to increase brand awareness and ultimately persuade a person or ...

, before concentrating on a political career.

Political career

He fought (and lost) as Conservative candidate for

Walthamstow West Walthamstow West was a borough constituency in what is now the London Borough of Waltham Forest, but was until 1965 the Walthamstow Urban District of Essex. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of t ...

in the 1955 general election, losing to the incumbent, leader of the Labour Party and former

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...

. He also contested, and lost, the by-election in March 1956 after Attlee moved to the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

Earl Attlee Earl Attlee is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 16 December 1955 for Clement Attlee, the former Labour prime minister. At the same time he was made Viscount Prestwood, of Walthamstow in the County of Essex, which s ...

. Hornby was finally elected

at the by-election in June 1956 for the safe Conservative seat of

, although, against a local Labour politician and with the unpopular government of

Anthony Eden Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 until his resignation in 1957. Achieving rapid promo ...

, the Conservative majority was cut to barely 1,600 votes. He was

Parliamentary Private Secretary A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...

to Duncan Sandys from 1959 to 1963, and continued to work for J Walter Thompson. He took leave of absence from his advertising job from October 1963 until the October 1964 general election, to serve as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, with responsibility for Africa and Commonwealth education, his only position in the government. He also served on the General Advisory Council of the BBC from 1969 to 1974, and was a member of the Committee of Enquiry into Intrusions into Privacy from 1970 to 1972, and was a member of the British Council and the Institute of Race Relations. His liberal views led to trouble in his constituency—he supported sanctions against Ian Smith's regime in

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

, and supported the abolition of

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

. A true "wet", he served until the constituency was abolished in boundary changes at the February 1974 general election. Declining the opportunity to stand in the new safe seat of

Royal Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. ...

, he returned full-time to J. Walter Thompson, becoming a director.

Later life

He joined the London board of the Halifax Building Society in 1974, and joined its main board of directors in 1976. He was its vice-chairman from 1981 to 1983, and its chairman from 1983 until he retired in 1990, during a period which saw rapid expansion, the ending of interest rates being set by the

Building Societies Association The Building Societies Association (BSA) was originally established in 1869. It is the voice for all 43 UK building societies as well as six large credit union A credit union, a type of financial institution similar to a commercial bank, is ...

, and the enactment of the Building Societies Act 1987. He was also a director of Cadbury Schweppes,

McCorquodale McCorquodale is a surname of Scottish origin. The name originates from Argyll in the West Highlands. People with the surname ''McCorquodale'' British family: * George McCorquodale (1817–1895), founder of McCorquodale printers. ** George Fr ...

and Business in the Community. He enjoyed outdoor activities—hill-walking, fishing, shooting and bird-watching. He died in

Bowerchalke Bowerchalke is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about southwest of Salisbury. It is in the south of the county, about from the boundary with Dorset and from that with Hampshire. The parish includes the hamlets of Mead End, Mi ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

. One son predeceased him. He was survived by his wife and three of their children.

Notes

External links

Obituary, ''The Times'', 28 September 2007Obituary, ''The Independent'', 28 September 2007Obituary, ''The Daily Telegraph'', 28 September 2007
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hornby, Richard 1922 births 2007 deaths People educated at Winchester College King's Royal Rifle Corps officers Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 British Army personnel of World War II Military personnel from Lancashire Ministers in the Macmillan and Douglas-Home governments, 1957–1964

Early and private life

Political career

Later life

See also

Notes

External links