John Peter Hornung

John Peter Hornung (1862- 1940), of West Grinstead Park

He was one of the eight children the Hungarian-born John Peter Hornung (1821-1886) who having come to Britain became a very wealthy iron, coal and timber merchant, m. to Harriet, née Armstrong.

John Peter Hornung founded in 1890 with a small group of investors, a company to explore the vast plantations of sugar cane they had in Mozambique - Companhia do Açucar de Moçambique. Expanding the business J. P. Hornung then decided to build a sugar refinery plant in Lisbon, at Alcântara – Refinaria Colonial - which was opened by King Emmanuel II and his uncle the Duke of Oporto, in March, 12^th, 1909.

In 1920, the company became the Sena Sugar Estates Ltd.

Apart from being a sugar magnate, John Peter Hornung purchased the manor of West Grinstead and the manor house, West Grinstead Park, from Sir Merrik Burrell in 1913 and having a keen interest in horse breeding and racing took over bloodstock and racing stables at Woodland and Green Lodge, Newmarket, in 1924 and also started a stud for breeding race horses at Park Farm, the home farm of the West Grinstead Park Estate. The stud was run by J. P. Hornung, with his two sons, Colonel Charles Bernard Raphael Hornung of Ivory's Farm, West and  Captain George Hornung, of West Grinstead Lodge.

John Peter Hornung had an armorial bookplate, probably of German origin, with crest and motto - Fac et Spera. (NIF)

Sources:

‘West Grinstead: Manors and other estates', A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 2: Bramber Rape (North-Western Part) including Horsham (1986), pp. 89-94. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=18330 (Date accessed: 11 June 2012).

Records of the West Grinstead Stud Add Mss 41,180 - 41,211  1924-1984

Bertha Mary Collin. J. P. Hornung, a family portrait. A Memoir : Orpington Press Ltd (1971)

Julius Graf von Falkenhayn

Julius Graf von Falkenhayn (1829 - 1899)

He was an Austrian politician (Minister of Agriculture in 1879) and courtier, the son of General Eugen Graf von Falkenhayn (1792-1853) and of his wife Countess Caroline Colloredo-Wallsee (1802-1835).

Sources: Karl Emich Graf zu Leiningen-Westerburg. German Book-plates - An Illustrated Handbook of German & Austrian Exlibris, London, George Bell & Sons, 1901

Capt. Nevill, R.N.

NIF



Captain Hon. Ralph Nevill, R.N., styledViscount Nevill (b. 21 Dec 1786; - 20 May 1826)

He was the second son of Henry Nevill, 2nd Earl of Abergavenny, KT (1755-1843) and his wife Mary Robinson (d. 26 Oct 1796), only child of John Robinson MP, of of Sion Hill and Wyke House, co. Middlesex, Secretary to the Treasury, by his wife Mary Crowe, of Barbados. Married 2 Feb 1813 Mary Anne Elcock (d. 6 Jun 1828), dau. of Bruce Elcock, of Chelsea, London

StyledViscount Nevill, after the premature death of his elder brother Henry Goeorge Nevill, in April 1806, when he became heir apparent to his father, but died at Boulogne-sur-Mer, in 1826, before his father.

He served on H.M.S. Victory in the Battle of Trafalgar, and in 1806 he was a Lieutenant on board Admiral Lord Collingwood's Flag ship. He obtained the rank of Captain in 1811, in the Royal Navy.

Arms: Gules, on a saltire, argent, a rose of the first, barbed and seeded proper.

Crest: In a ducal coronet or, a bull's head, argent pied sable, armed of the first and charged on the neck with a rose gules

Motto: Ne vile velis