Geoffrey Hardinge Phipps-Hornby

Colonel Geoffrey Hardinge Phipps-Hornby, CBE, (4 Apr 1889 – 23 Feb 1967) was a British Army officer and international polo player.

He was born on 4 April 1889, the son of Captain Geoffrey Stanley Phipps-Hornby, an officer of the Rifle Brigade, and his wife Jessie (née Gunston), members of a distinguished family of landed gentry. He was the grandson of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Geoffrey Phipps Hornby, great-grandson of Admiral Sir Phipps Hornby, great-great-grandson of General John Burgoyne, nephew of General Edmund Phipps-Hornby, VC, and Admiral Robert Phipps Hornby, and great-nephew of Captain Cowper Coles, designer of the ill-fated HMS Captain, and James Hornby, headmaster of Eton. Cousins on his father's side included the Rt. Rev. Hugh Leycester Hornby, the latter's son Richard Hornby, MP, and the Earls of Derby and other members of the Stanley family. On his mother's side, he was a cousin of Sir Derrick Gunston.

He grew up at Sandley Hall, near Gillingham in Dorset, where his father, after retiring from the Army, was joint owner and manager of the Compton Stud, breeding thoroughbreds and hunters. He was educated at Eton and Sandhurst and, on passing out from Sandhurst in 1909, was commissioned into the Rifle Brigade as a Second Lieutenant. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1911 and, in 1912, was transferred to the 9th (Queen's Royal) Lancers, with whom he spent the rest of his career. On the outbreak of the Great War, he was seconded for service on the Staff and served as ADC to Brigadier-General (later General) de Lisle, Commander of 2nd Cavalry Brigade during the Great Retreat. He was promoted to Captain in May 1915 and was slightly wounded by a shell splinter while on the staff of Brig.-Gen. Mullens, who had succeeded de Lisle as commander of 2nd Cavalry Brigade on the latter's promotion to the command of 1st Cavalry Division. He returned to his regiment later in 1915, and was promoted to Acting Major in 1917 and Brevet Major in 1919. He was mentioned in despatches three times (in 1915, 1916 and 1919) and was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre in 1918.

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