Paul Hornsby
Fibbing Military Consultant to the stars of film , stage and TV. SAS Bloater!
BLOATERS
To bloat or not to bloat, that is the question’. and how fitting a question in regards to our next offering plastic Special Forces man to the stars and stage Paul Hornsby.
Walting “Those who mostly have never served and parade around with medals and uniforms or berets that have not been officially awarded”.
Bloating “Those who have served yet feel the need the exaggerate their service for advantage, position, financial or ego reasons”.
The Tip Off
We were approached back in mid 2014 by a chap who was working on a new Tarzan film playing a Belgian Soldier. The film is yet to be shown in the pictures and In his short message He asked:
”Could you check out a Mr Paul Hornsby who is the military advisor for new tarzen film. I think something is wrong about him“
With not a lot to go by we asked what his suspicions were and why we should devote our time and resources to investigating him. He then expanded.
“I along with a few others on set had started chatting to him over a wet and ask what he had served in. Mr Hornsby had told us he was 14 intelligence in Ireland and SBS. One of the of the guys in the group was also Royal (Royal Marine) and started to ask more about where and when, at this point Mr Hornsby looked uncomfortable, made his excuses and walked off. For the rest of the filming days he kept a very low profile and never engaged in conversation with us again, and despite attempts by the other Royal to chat to him that day and the next, he would not play ball.
He obviously did not want to know!
We were convinced he was not telling the truth and was quite pissed off over it and wanted to have it out with him about his SBS claims and the other lad asked one of the film crew if he could pass a message to Mr Hornsby so he could meet up at the end of the second day for a drink. The next day the other lad was not on set and replaced by another guy. Not unusual in this game, but he was supposed to be on for a week. We was later told by a crew member that he was informed by his agency not to come back on set as he had upset someone. He was with us most of the time and was a good bloke. Not rude and I was with him when he made his request to see Honrsby.
It was a friendly request for a wet with Honrsby and I can only conclude it was something to do with him.“
So to that end we started to dig a little deeper on Paul Hornsby to find out more about his real service. We found him on Linkedin and his career profile was glittering, for the film world, yet very shy about his Military past which just mentions. Army, NCO 1977-1986. Not much to go on there and quite possibly if he were 14 Int or SBS he would want to keep a low profile for the obvious reasons, but odd if promoting yourself as a Military advisor.
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/paul-hornsby/18/b23/423
We then asked a few contacts who were in the respective units he claimed to be in between the dates on Hornsby's LinkedIn profile. No one had ever heard of him.
We then preceded with key searchers of “Paul Hornsby” +Special Forces and then things started to show up. From there we were able to gather names of people connected to him.
We found his Facebook page, which at the time was open and we were at pains to find any pictures of him in regular uniform from his service other then him on film sets and mostly dressed in Special forces gear, and other than a few ex soldiers from various units on his friends list, mostly ex Royal Marines turned stuntmen or women we drew a blank.
Then In December another extra made contact who worked with him a few years back and provided us a new lead. The Hussars being one of them. So without spooking our subject, we started sending out CC1’s for help with a number of Cavalry units between those dates. At this point we were still blind, until two people who knew him got back to us, then things eventually started falling into place.
At first glance It was quite possible Paul Hornsby was ex Special Forces or 14 Int and the guy who tipped us off could have been wrong.
There was plenty of people quite close and in three examples face book friends openly tagging him in pictures and commenting on his Special forces role or Ex SAS past. Paul even likes one such post and comments on another without a single correction and So with no way of knowing his parent unit, the trail went cold as at that point we had no way of knowing 100% if he was or was not. So in the cold file.
Paul Robert Hornsby's last four —-. had indeed served. He joined the RAC Aug 1977 and was a Crewman gunner AFV in Jan 79 last job being a Controller Signaller AFV in Feb 85 with the RH.
He passed an Assistant PTI course He passed a Snow and Ice climbing course as well as a Rock leader course in 83, Even a cross Country Ski course and by all accounts a nice all round guy! Keen and fit and like to practice Jap Slapping, that was 33 years ago, He also went to military prison for going AWOL but we were getting somewhere now.
With his “Big three” we were able to start putting more meat on the bone and ask our SF contacts for help over the Special Forces claims made by extras and people he had worked more directly with.
With the added detail information started flooding in and the Correlation of evidence became much clearer.
1st Paul Hornsby had never been deployed to Northern Ireland so this most defiantly ruled out the “DET” In fact he had left the Army of his own accord signed off after two AWOL attempts and with no operational medals on his records.
However, not wanting to leave any stone unturned we contacted two ex 14 intelligence company members who were able to confirm his Big Three had never attempted Camp 1 or 2 of 14 Int selection and was not known by North or South Det members of the time!
Its a small world which can be checked, despite what some people think We then turned to our Poole and Hereford Contacts.
Again he was not known by those in post during his service dates and was never attached to the units in any capacity, we checked with 21 and 23, Again no records.
He was not Special Forces Para trained. He had never received any type of Special Forces training within their syllabus over his service period.
He was never SAS or SBS or attached in any capacity. He had never operationally deployed to any hostile environment both in service or the private security sector. Contrary to popular belief. Special Forces soldiers or 14 int are not ghosts or have special secret files in a vault that only the Queen and the pope have access to, unless its Dirk Steel of course! So why was Paul Hornsby being called the Ex Special Forces or Ex British SAS man or as described as having in one article “a rich and un discussed past” What persona was Paul giving these people. Why were they assuming he was Ex Special Forces, It was quite clear Paul was not keen to divulge or use his genuine service to promote himself. So where were they all getting it from? He was telling them he was to get the work!
Last week we contacted Paul with our findings and asked him as we do with everyone to have a word. He refused, stayed silent and then just before our normal “Come on Down” closed down his page. Strange Not seen that before!
During the course of our investigations several other people contact us about Paul Hornsby including two film directors and three TV program makers called producers, a very well respected ex member of 22 SAS who had the pleasure of working with him on a film set and all confirmed he was claiming to be Special Forces.
We contacted a Stuntman in South Africa who again confirmed he knew of his SF background through him, but advised us to contact Hornsby direct for further details. (He was unaware of the real reason we were asking him) Read some of the screen shots and make your own mind up. Names have been blanked out to protect sources of information and his face book friends.
In summary The fact he served makes his situation in some people eyes much worse than full on Walting He may not have been big timing it like Iddy Armin, but he was obviously carrying on a deception of Special Forces service for personal gain and in a completive market, were Special Forces skills and drills were required for big pay days.
We don’t have to tell you that UKSF selection is not an easy course to pass and people have lost their life attempting it. Three only recently. Others have died defending this country while serving in those units. So those who say he’s done no harm, well yes he has, not only to their memory but also to people who DO have the right skills and drills required. He is obtaining an advantage by deception.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-23511938
Paul Hornsby obviously felt his real career in the RAC and RH was not good enough for the film world, concealed it and used another unit to build up his filming CV. He never made a single reference to his time in the RAC or the Royal Hussars, Not on his linkedin page or any other pages. Not one mention. Just acknowledgments to comments about his NON EXISTANT Special Forces past from close friends and members of the film industry. Some could say he deliberately concealed it as something to add an air of secrecy in order to give the impression of a spook, towards those who do not know any better, yet who pay highly for the right man for the job. Who knows.
Some Links
Just a few weeks after her audition, Jackson was in Johannesburg, South Africa, being put through her paces by the show’s “hard core” military adviser, Paul Hornsby. The former Special Forces soldier trains cast members in hand-to-hand combat, weapons work and other military techniques to make the action as realistic as possible. He told Jackson, “You can do this and look authentic, if you follow my advice,” she said, adding with laugh. “There were times I didn’t want to, but I had to.”
http://www.karenlongwriter.com/index.php?id=32
Jast November an opportunity arose for me to spend a couple of hours with Paul Hornsby and Zoltan Bush on the HBO/Sky ‘Strikeback’ set. Paul is the show’s military advisor and has a rich and un-discussed past
http://narukamisthunderbolts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/hollywood-romans-10-eagle.html
On the other hand the Military Technical Advisor, Paul Hornsby, whose area of expertise seems to be World War Two, has worked on two noteworthy films set in the ancient world: first, as a stunt man on Alexander, and then as the senior military advisor on The Last Legion. The results of their efforts here are mixed.
A not so Happy Stuntman!
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1365932/board/thread/158617399
What is proven is the Comments on Blogs and online interviews were never challenged or corrected by Paul Hornsby. He knew what was being said, He was tagged and in some cases liked the comments, yet let it run without correction. He could have quite easily corrected it. To end Bloating your service for personal gain is no excuse. He is disrespecting and insulting those he attempts to portray, he is also taking the film and tv world for a mug, advising on things he has no real world knowledge about…goggle must be his friend!
What a Bloater.
