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, 12th, 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).
Bertha Mary Collin. J. P. Hornung, a family portrait. A Memoir : Orpington Press Ltd (1971)
