Pioneers of Rugby in Wellington 091: Bill Hornig and Gibby Hill

The founder and one of the early drivers of the Oriental club in Wellington, that through subsequent amalgamations gave one half of its name to the contemporary Oriental-Rongotai club.

S G (Gibby) Hill founded the Oriental club in 1888 and played halfback in the first match.

He was a guest of honour at the 75^th Jubilee in 1963 at the age of 95.

Hill was one of the pioneers of Wellington sport, playing a major role in founding several other sports organisations in the early 1900s.

He arrived in Wellington from Glasgow, via Port Chalmers, with his family in the early 1870s and lived all his life at Oriental Villa at 246 Oriental Parade. He owned his own boat shed near the Oriental Boating Club’s shed, the venue for the first meeting which formed Oriental. Hill’s personal pleasure craft was also named Oriental and the club was named after his boat.

On 9 March 1888 the club was formed, becoming the fifth club in Wellington.

Hill became locally as the Defender of Oriental Bay when he led a small group of residents trying to stop the city council’s bid to reclaim nine or 10 acres of the bay for a cricket field. His group won.

He served Ories in many capacities down the years, culminating in 1933 when he was appointed President. Apart from being a halfback of some note (he has also played for Athletic), he was a champion swimmer and diver.

He helped found the Wellington branch of the Royal Life Saving Association and the Wellington Amateur Swimming Association. He also served on the New Zealand Olympic Council.

He died in 1965, aged 97.

Bill Hornig came along a decade or so later than Hill but was involved in Oriental and Wellington rugby for 66 years. In particular his service from 1910-40 was invaluable.

Hornig was born Havelock, Marlborough on 5 June 1879, the son of Charles and Elizabeth (nee Hunt) Hornig. His father was a baker in Marlborough and Nelson. Bill attended Waimea Boys’ School. In 1897 he moved to Wellington.

He joined Ories that same year as a player in the WRFU Wednesday competitions and was selected to represent Wellington every year from 1903-07.

He was one of the first to enlist in the Second Boer War at the age of 21, serving in South Africa with the D Squadron of the sixth New Zealand contingent.

He retired from play in 1909 and in 1910 was made treasurer, a job he held until 1919. In 1911 he was elected to the management committee of the WRFU, a position he held until 1920. In 1916 and 1919 he was WRFU Treasurer. He was sole Wellington selector in 1917.

An executive officer of “the Wednesday competition”, Hornig helped to build up that competition from four to ten clubs.

He was WRFU chairman in 1919 and 1920 (and later President). He initiated the “Athletic Park Retention Fund”, when the Wellington Rugby Union, owing to the war, was in serious financial difficulties.

He spent four years as Oriental’s President 1923-26. In 1922 he was elected to a management position with the NZRU, a position he held until 1928 when he was appointed manager of the 1928 All Blacks to South Africa.

He was WRFU President in 1934 and 1935. Oriental made him a Life Member in 1939. The WRFU also made him a Life Member of Athletic Park. He was made Patron of Oriental in 1959, a position he held until his death in 1963.

He was a rugby referee and later became Chairman of the Eastbourne Rugby Football Club in the 1930s, as well as being elected an Eastbourne borough councillor.

Both men passed away just a few years before the merging of clubs to form today’s Oriental-Rongotai in 1969.

While both had hung up their playing boots, both were involved in the club’s first – and only – standalone Oriental Senior Championship win in 1910.

In 1905 Oriental finished runners-up in five of the six grades that they had teams entered in. In 1908 the Senior A team again finished second, but injuries decimated the squad in 1909 and they couldn’t capitalise. Thus 1910 was a special year for the club and they lost just one encounter.

In 1943-44 Poneke and Oriental combined forces to win the Jubilee Cup alternately wearing Ories jerseys one week and Poneke the next. Successor club Oriental-Rongotai would next win a Jubilee Cup in 2011.

REFERENCES

• Dominion and Evening Post various newspaper reports 1888-1910.
• New Zealand Amateur Sport Association. For the Love of the Game e-newsletter Issue 119: 4 December 2022.
• Swan, Arthur C.; Jackson, Gordon F. W. (1952). Wellington’s Rugby History 1870 – 1950. Wellington, New Zealand: A. H. & A. W. Reed.
• 75th Jubilee 1888-1963 of the Oriental Football Club. Wellington : Standard Press, 1963
• Photo: W F Hornig, Manager of the All Blacks, New Zealand representative rugby union team, tour of South Africa, 1928. Crown Studios Ltd :Negatives and prints. Ref: 1/1-030748-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23043596

For further reading, visit the previous profiles of former Oriental All Blacks Charlie Gillespie and Alexander Pringle in the link below.

Pioneers of Rugby in Wellington 036: Charlie Gillespie and Alexander Pringle