HORNBROOK, ALFRED, was a son of a colonel of the Royal Marines, and himself served as a field officer of engineers in the British Legion in Spain (1837), and was created a Knight of Saint Ferdinand. He came to Wellington in the Oriental (1840) and engaged in business. During 1850, in anticipation of the arrival of the Canterbury settlers, he established the Mitre Inn at Lyttelton. He was one of the first to start a station in Canterbury, taking up Mt Pleasant at Arowhenua, where he lost his money owing to scab. About 1870 he and his brother William bought Raukapuka from A. Cox, and they had also Opuha Gorge and Kakahu for a while. Hornbrook represented Port Victoria in the Canterbury Provincial Council in 1862-71, and was in the executive (1869-70). His wife is said to have been the last woman in Canterbury who wore the crinoline.

William Hornbrook, who was born in France in 1822, also served in Spain. He died at Seadown in 1882.

Canterbury P.C. Proc.; Cox; Acland; Cycl. N.Z., iii; Ward.

Reference: Volume 1, page 223

🌳 Further sources