James John Hornby

James John Hornby CVO (18 December 1826 – 2 November 1909) was an English rower and headmaster of Eton College from 1868 to 1884.

crews that won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta in 1850 and 1851 when there was no Boat Race on the Tideway in either year.

[2] In 1853, Hornby went to Durham University as Principal of Bishop Cosin's Hall until 1864 when he returned to Brasenose as classical lecturer.

[2] His appointment was made possible by the conclusions of the Northcote Commission which had removed restrictions among educational endowments, among which was the tradition that the Eton headmaster should come from King's College, Cambridge.

[2] Guy Nickalls, at Eton in the early 1880s, recalled: "In spite of the swishings I got, I liked the headmaster, Hornby, the perfectly mannered and sonorously-voiced old English gentleman.

Handsome, alert, witty, a great athlete in his day, a good judge of wine, and the finest after-dinner speaker I ever listened to, with a charm of manner I have never forgotten.

"[6] Hornby retired in 1884 to take the post of Provost of Eton and was succeeded by another Etonian and Balliol oarsman, Edmond Warre.