He was the sixth son of William Henry Hornby, a cotton mill proprietor and director of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Blackburn from 1857 to 1865.

Albert attended Harrow School, for whom he played against Eton College at Lord's,[2] and from there returned to Lancashire to join the family business.

For many years he provided an ideal attacking foil to the careful defence of his opening partner, Dick Barlow, with whom he was immortalised in one of the best known of all cricket poems, At Lord's by Francis Thompson which contains the following lines: It is little I repair to the matches of the Southron folk, Though my own red roses there may blow; It is little I repair to the matches of the Southron folk, Though the red roses crest the caps, I know.

His lack of stature and excess of energy earned him the nickname "Monkey" whilst at school and this stuck, while his players called him "The Boss", for his martinet approach to captaincy.

Hornby was unable to carry his county form with the bat into the Test arena, his 3.50 average being a testament to this fact.

The Test match in 1882 was a one-off game played at The Oval in London, England, and the English cricket team lost it to Australia by seven runs.

He was present in the team in 1878 but due to his overseas international cricketing commitments in 1879 was unable to play rugby for his country that year.

As well as becoming captain of the national side for both cricket and rugby, Hornby was also selected to play for Blackburn Rovers in their inaugural game at Alexandra Meadows, against Partick Thistle on 2 January 1878.

The youngest, John, (1880–1927) was also wounded during the First World War, was awarded the Military Cross, and later died when exploring in the north of Canada.

He died at Parkfield, Nantwich, Cheshire on 17 December 1925, and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's Church in nearby Acton.