Linton Chorley Hope was born on 19 April 1863 in Macclesfield, Cheshire as Linton Chorley Hopps, the son of Edwin Chorley Hopps and Sara Smith Hopps (née Herford). The family changed its surname to Hope in 1869.

The family appear to have travelled to South Africa in or about 1881, and Hope returned to England on 2 January 1892. A naval architect and yachtsman, he represented his country at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Meulan, France. With Lorne Currie as helmsman and fellow crewmembers John Gretton and Algernon Maudslay, Hope took first places in both the race of the .5 to 1 ton class and the Open class.

Hope designed a variety of yachts, as well as the Fairy One Design for the North of Ireland Yacht Club, international canoes, Thames Raters, and Half Raters that were sent to India, specifically the Malabar, Nainital and Rangoon Yacht Clubs. Both Olympic races were won using the yacht Scotia designed by Hope. He was appointed naval architect to the King of the Belgians.

Following the outbraek of WWI, Hope recieved a temporary commission in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve ans a Lieutenant on 24 April 1915, and was posted to May, Harden and May on inspection duties. In 1915 Hope designed the AD Flying Boat for the British Admiralty's Air Department and his hull designs were used by a number of British flying boats in the 1920s including the Phoenix P.5 Cork and Fairey Titania, largest flying boat in the world at the time.

On 6 December 1916, Hope was promoted to Lt. Commander. He appears to have become unwell at the beginning of 1917 and was declared unfit for travel, only finally being declared fit in April, when he was posted to the Air Board. On its formation on 1 April 1918, Hope received a temporary commission in the RAF with the rank of Major, but relinquished his commission due to ill health on 25 July 1919

Major Linton Hope MINA, FRAeS died on 20 December 1920 in the Midhurst, Sussex.

1. Wikipedia
2. Records ADM 273/23/422, ADM 337/119/127 and AIR 76/236/220 (The National Archives)
3. ancestry.co.uk