29 Facts About Roy Horniman

Roy Horniman published many short stories and novels and wrote original plays, as well as dramatic adaptations of novels and plays by other authors.

Roy Horniman was devoted to the cause of animal welfare, in particular the protection and care of working horses, and was opposed to vivisection.

Robert Roy Horniman was born on 31 July 1868 at Southsea, near Portsmouth in Hampshire, the eldest son of William Roy Horniman and Sarah Esther.

Roy Horniman's father was an English naval officer and paymaster-in-chief of the British Royal Navy.

When he was aged thirteen, Roy Horniman wrote a novel that was confiscated by his mother.

Roy Horniman was a cast member in the following stage productions: Echo at the Trafalgar Square Theatre, The Super at the Criterion Theatre, Romeo and Juliet at the Prince of Wales' Theatre, Uncle Thatcher at the Court Theatre, The Littlest Girl at the Court Theatre and Number One Round the Corner at the Court Theatre.

Roy Horniman was a cast member in Shakespeare's Hamlet at the Lyceum Theatre in late 1897 and late 1898 and the successful original London production of the musical comedy Florodora at the Lyric Theatre from late 1899 to March 1901.

Roy Horniman was described as "a wealthy bachelor and admirer of Oscar Wilde" and "a lesser follower of Wilde in his Dorian Gray mode".

Roy Horniman was described by a contemporary as "a well-to-do bachelor who knew what did and what did not suit him, marriage being in the latter category, the social round in the former".

Two novels by Horniman were published by T Fisher Unwin in 1903, The Living Buddha and That Fast Miss Blount.

Roy Horniman was a vegetarian and a crusader against censorship.

Roy Horniman was closely associated with several charities, especially in the field of animal welfare.

Roy Horniman served as chairman of Our Dumb Friends' League and the Committee for the Suppression of Cruelty to Performing Animals.

In 1907 Roy Horniman was described as "a vegetarian, a nature curist, a Theosophist [and] a public singer".

Roy Horniman was the founder and part-owner with Kate Emil Behnke of the 'Broadlands Nature Cure Sanatorium' at Medstead in Hampshire, the first 'nature-cure' establishment in England.

Two other of Roy Horniman's novels were published in 1907: A Nonconformist Parson and Lord Cammarleigh's Secret: A Fairy Story of To-Day.

The Walk, a duologue by Roy Horniman, was produced at the Apollo in January 1908, followed by Thumbs Down, another of his plays.

Roy Horniman rented and managed the Criterion Theatre in London's West End, possibly in the period 1913 and 1914 when two of his plays were produced at the theatre.

Billy's Fortune, written by Roy Horniman, opened in January 1913 at the Criterion.

In 1915 Roy Horniman visited a Blue Cross hospital in France treating injured horses, reporting that the majority of cases were "deep and painful saddle cuts", with sabre and bullet wounds in the minority.

Roy Horniman was chairman of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Tobacco Fund, a body that organised to send tobacco to British armed forces.

Roy Horniman's play Three Weeks was a adaptation of Elinor Glyn's controversial novel of the same name.

Roy Horniman was an investor in the Gattie Transport Scheme and a director of the associated company, the New Transport Co.

Roy Horniman was a member of the British Committee of the Indian National Congress.

In 1920 Benjamin Roy Horniman was deported from India by George Lloyd, the Governor of Bombay, under the Defence of India Act.

In 1920 Roy Horniman wrote the screenplay of Jennie, a film directed by Alan Crosland and produced by Selznick Pictures.

Roy Horniman co-wrote the screenplay of The Education of Elizabeth with Elmer Harris, a film based on Roy Horniman's 1907 play of the same name.

Roy Horniman was credited as one of the writers of A Gentleman of Paris, a Paramount Pictures film directed by Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast and released in October 1927.

Roy Horniman died on 11 October 1930 at his home at 17 Stanley Crescent in Notting Hill in west London, aged 62.