PRIVATE WILLIAM HORNBY, 2ND BATTALION AUSTRALIAN IMPERIAL FORCE (LATE RIFLE BRIGADE), MORT

PRIVATE WILLIAM HORNBY, 2ND BATTALION AUSTRALIAN IMPERIAL FORCE (LATE RIFLE BRIGADE), MORTALLY WOUNDED AT GALLIPOLI. Three: 1914-15 Star (naming erased, a replacement for a lost original medal) British War and Victory Medals, officially impressed (1649 Private, 2nd Battalion AIF). BWM with attractive old dark tone, Extremely Fine.

Group accompanied by copied extracts from the England and Wales census returns for 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901 and 1911, 5 pages of British Army service papers re Hornby’s service with the Rifle Brigade, 1885-1897, 4 pages of Militia attestation papers re. his period of service with the Reserve Division of the Militia, 1903-1907, 28 pages of Australian Army service papers, along with marriage registry details and passenger list details re. Hornby’s emigration to Australia in 1911.

William Robert Hornby, the son of William Robert Hornby, a tin plate worker, was born in the parish of St Pancras, Hampstead, London, circa 1868. The 1871 census records the 2 year old William Hornby as being resident at 88 Grove Street, St Pancras, by 1881 his family had moved to 20 Wellington Street, St Pancras. His family continued to reside at various addresses at St Pancras during the period covered by the various censuses up to and including 1911. Rifle Brigade service papers confirm that William Hornby enlisted into the Rifle Brigade at Winchester on 5/9/1885. At the time of enlistment he was 18 years and 10 months old, gave his trade as that of printer, stated that he was born in the parish of St Pancras, London, and confirmed that he had previously seen service with the 17th Battalion Middlesex Regiment (North Middlesex Volunteer Rifle Corps). Hornby never rose above the rank of private, transferred to the Army Reserve in 1892 and was discharged on 1/9/1897, after serving 12 years with the colours. After almost six years of civilian life Hornby enlisted into the Reserve Division of the Militia (Rifle Brigade), on 18/6/1903. He was discharged from the militia on his “termination of engagement” on 17/6/1907.

The passenger list for the Steamer Otway records William Hornby as a passenger aboard that ship, en route for Sydney, Australia, on 13/9/1911.

Hornby enlisted into the Australian Army at Sydney, New South Wales, on 11/1/1915. At the time of enlistment into the Australian Army he stated that he was 46 years old, had previously seen 17 years and 7 months service with the Rifle Brigade, gave as his trade that of engineer’s assistant and home address as Willbriggie, New South Wales (he was one of a group of nine men from Willbriggie of varying occupations, who apparently all enlisted together on the same day, received consecutive service numbers and were posted to the 2nd Battalion AIF). Hornby landed at Gallipoli on 7/5/1915 as part of the third reinforcement group of the 2nd Battalion AIF, and was mortally wounded just four weeks later, on 1st June 1915, gunshot wound to the head resulting in a compound fracture of the skull. Hornby died of his wounds that same day, whilst being evacuated aboard HMTS Gascon and was buried at sea. William Hornby is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial, Gallipoli.

William Hornby is recorded as having married Alice Harriett Hewlings in 1894. There is no record of her having emigrated to Australia with him in 1911, and when Hornby enlisted into the Australian Army he stated that he was not married, and gave as his next of kin his mother, Emily Harriet Hornby of 43 Oak Village, Gospel Oak, London NW. She received a pension of 6 shillings per fortnight.