John Hornby
British explorer
John Hornby (1880–1927) was an English explorer, best known for his expeditions in the Arctic region of northern Canada, notably in the "Barren Lands" in the Northwest Territories of Canada.
Biography
Hornby was born to a wealthy family in England; his father, A. N. Hornby, twice captained England in Test cricket. John migrated to Canada in 1904. Hornby's first trip to the Arctic was to the Great Bear Lake region in 1908 and he developed a strong fascination with the Canadian Arctic wilderness. Apart from occasional trips to Edmonton and service in World War I, Hornby spent the rest of his life in Canada's wilderness.
Hornby enlisted in the 19th Alberta Dragoons to fight during World War I, where he met Norman Lubbock Robinson, who would later work with him in Canada's north. Robinson's journals describe their work together, and Robinson took photos of Hornby on some of their wilderness excursions. Hornby transferred to the British Army, where he was commissioned. He only served until 1917, when his wounds lead to his retirement.
He became known as the "hermit of the north" for his efforts to live off the land with limited supplies.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Hornby” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.