About Us

The Trust provides support for English language teaching scholarships, projects and workshops

Who we are

The Trust was founded in 1961 by A.S. Hornby, known as ASH to his friends. He was an English Language Teaching (ELT) specialist best known for producing the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary published by Oxford University Press. To this day the trust is funded by the royalties from the dictionary and from related products which is invested in a professionally-managed investment portfolio.

The chief objective of the A.S. Hornby Educational Trust, as laid down in its Trust Deed, is to promote the teaching and learning of English as a Foreign Language, especially by providing scholarships and grants. Since 1961, the Trust has supported the professional development of over 500 teachers from the Global South via individual scholarships to study on MA programmes in the UK (the ‘Hornby Scholars’ scheme), regional schools (‘Hornby Schools’) and via small-scale project funding to alumni and to teacher associations.

Albert Sydney Hornby: his life and achievements

The A.S. Hornby Educational Trust was founded in 1961 by A.S. Hornby, an English language specialist respectfully known as ‘the man who made dictionaries’. His most famous work is the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, which for over 70 years has helped students of English around the world understand an expansive and complex language. Albert Sydney Hornby, wanted the Trust’s money – much of which came out of his own pocket – to ‘go back to the countries from which it comes’.

At this time the teaching of English was usually based on traditional language learning -principles such as the extensive use of translation, the emphasis on the written over the spoken language, and limited reference to the creative production of spoken language by the learner, all principles Hornby endeavoured to counteract in his approach to a dictionary based on learners’ needs.

Thanks to grants awarded by the Trust, hundreds of teachers have been able to develop their expertise through British Council Summer Schools and postgraduate courses in Linguistics and English Language Teaching at British universities. The widespread and continuing work of the Trust is an appropriate reflection of a man who was dedicated to the teaching, and to all teachers, of the English language.

With kind permission of OUP

A.S. Hornby lifeline

  • 1898

    Born in Chester

  • 1922

    Completed a degree in English Language and Literature at University College London

  • 1923

    Went to teach English in Japan

  • 1931

    Invited to join the programme of vocabulary research at the Tokyo Institute for Research into English Teaching (IRET)

  • 1936

    Appointed Head of Research at the IRET

  • 1942

    First edition of the Idiomatic and Syntactic English Dictionary published in Tokyo – which was later renamed the Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

  • 1942

    Returned to England and joined the British Council. He was posted to Iran where he worked as a lecturer and teacher trainer

  • 1945

    Appointed Linguistic Adviser to the British Council in London

  • 1946

    Founded the British Council’s English Language Teaching Journal (ELTJ)

  • 1946

    Initiated the BBC series English by Radio

  • 1954

    Published A Guide to Patterns and Usage in English, one of many key books

  • 1961

    Set up the A.S. Hornby Educational Trust

  • 1976

    Made a fellow of University College of London

  • 1978

    Awarded a Master of Arts degree at the University of Oxford

  • 1978

    Died, age 80

Our Trustees

Chair – Professor Harry Kuchah Kuchah

Harry took over the role of Chair in September 2024. He is Associate Professor of Language, Social Justice and Education the School of Education, University of Birmingham, UK. In addition to being a former a Hornby Scholar (2006/07), Harry was also recognised by TESOL International Association as one of 30 Up-and-Coming Leaders in ELT globally

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Deputy Chair – John Whitehead

John is an international cultural relations and education professional with major experience in project management, teacher education and team leadership. He lectured in education at the University of Manchester and worked for the British Council for twenty-five years in senior management and leadership posts in the UK and overseas.

Treasurer – Anita Manek

Anita is a highly versatile senior finance professional with significant expertise in building and developing effective finance functions and aligning to organisational requirements. She continuously assesses opportunities to improve policies and processes and drive greater transparency, reporting and business performance. Builds strong stakeholder relationships with a collaborative and consensus building leadership style. Thrives in encouraging

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Caroline Moore

Caroline has been a Hornby Trustee since 2016, and its Chair since 2020. She has worked in ELT, publishing, and digital technologies for the British Council, publishers and Universities. She was an IATEFL Trustee in 2013/17. She has an MA in Second Language Learning & Teaching, London University, and an MBA, City University. Caroline was

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Dr Bhaskar Chakravarti

Bhaskar first got to know the Hornby Trust through working with them when he was the British Council’s Global Director of English. Before that he lived and worked in a range of overseas countries including Cameroon, Nigeria, Egypt, China and Thailand, developing a first-hand understanding of their education and English language teaching systems.

Dr Martin Wedell

Martin has been involved in the teaching and learning of English since the late 1970s. He has worked at schools and universities in Kenya, Saudi Arabia, China and Hungary and was Head of International Education at the School of Education, University of Leeds. His research focus is TESOL curriculum change, particularly how English education systems

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Dr Neil Kemp

Neil is interested in international education, transnational education and global student mobility. He has worked in South-East and South Asia for over 20 years, mainly with the British Council. In that organisation, in the UK, he held various director positions for education, international development and science & technology. His doctorate relates to analytical chemistry although

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Anna Searle

Anna is Chief Executive of The Access Project, a UK-based social mobility education charity focused on supporting access to top universities for under-resourced young people. Previously Anna was an Executive Director at Education Development Trust delivering on UK and global education and employability programmes and before that spent many years with The British Council both

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Professor Graham Hall

Graham has been involved in ELT as a teacher and teacher educator of over thirty years, and, having previously taught in a variety of contexts, now works at Northumbria University, UK. He is the author of Exploring English Language Teaching: Language in Action (Routledge, 2011; 2nd edition, 2017), which was the winner of the 2012

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Professor Amol Padwad

Amol, former Director, Centre for English Language Education, Ambedkar University Delhi, has been a teacher, teacher educator, teacher community leader and ELT consultant through a career spanning 40 years. His professional interests include teacher development and communities, history of ELE, decentring in ELT and teacher research.

Secretary to the Trustees – Karen Monaghan

Karen has worked in the charity sector for many years in a variety of roles. Working with different Trustee Boards has really helped her to appreciate how important the charity sector is. Karen feels that it is a privilege to work with so many talented people giving their own time and skills to support this

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Operations Co-ordinator – Aida Kowalska

Aida has over a decade of involvement in both non-profit and international organisations, she has managed large-scale initiatives and fostered global partnerships. Passionate about fostering collaboration and driving meaningful change, Aida is committed to supporting the Trust’s mission through efficient operations and social media planning.

Hornby Alumni Community Co-ordinator

Komila is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Applied Linguistics at the School of Education, Learning and Communication Sciences, University of Warwick. She was a Hornby Scholar in 2016-2017. She chose to specialise in Language Testing and Assessment when doing her MA in the UK and most of her work on returning to Uzbekistan

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Oxford University Press

The Trust benefits greatly from its long and well-established partnership with Oxford University Press. Their contributions help sustain and extend the impact of the work carried out by the Trust.