Charles Hoare (cricketer, born 1847)
Charles Arthur Richard Hoare (18 May 1847 โ 22 May 1908) was an English banker who became a senior partner in the private bank C. Hoare & Co. He was a keen amateur cricketer who played one first-class cricket match for Kent County Cricket Club.
Career
Hoare was born in Blackfriars in 1847;[1] he was the son of Peter Richard Hoare, the younger and Lady Sophia Marsham (daughter of Charles Marsham, 2nd Earl of Romney).[2] Hoare received no formal education on account of his lameness.[3] He played cricket extensively in non-first-class matches of teams such as MCC, having become a member of the club at the age of 18 in 1865, and made his only first-class cricket appearance in 1872 for Kent County Cricket Club in a twelve-a-side match against the MCC.[4][5]
Following his father's death, in 1877, Hoare became Senior Partner of the banking firm C. Hoare & Co and owner of Kelsey Park in Beckenham.[6] He also became Master of the Vale of White Horse Hunt[7] and was President of Hampshire County Cricket Club for three years.[4] In the late 1870s he began a relationship with Beatrice Holme Sumner, who at that time was a minor; the affair became public knowledge in 1885, when members of Sumner's family sought a court order restricting Hoare from continuing the relationship and demanding his committal to prison.[8][9] The judge rejected the application to imprison Hoare.[10]
In 1885 Hoare founded TS Mercury at Binstead on the Isle of Wight as a charitable venture formed with the objective of rescuing poor boys of good character and training them for naval service.[11][4] After a sustained period of absence from the Bank, on account of his pursuit of his cricket, hunting and personal interests, Hoare was dismissed as Senior Partner of the Bank in 1888.[12] The entire TS Mercury establishment, with Hoare as its superintendent, moved from Binstead to Hamble-le-Rice near Southampton in 1892.[13] In June 1898, following Beatrice Holme-Sumner's marriage to the cricketer, C. B. Fry,[9] Hoare retired to Hall Place, West Meon where he died in May 1908 aged 61 after a long illness.[4][14]
Family
In 1867 Hoare married Margaret Short; they had four sons and one daughter. He also had a son (Robin Hoare) and a daughter by his relationship with Beatrice Holme Sumner.[15]
References
- Carlaw D (2020) Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806โ1914 (revised edition), pp. 258โ260. (Available online at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 7 August 2022.)
- "Charles Arthur Richard Hoare". The Peerage. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
- Morris, p. 20
- Capt. Charles Arthur Richard Hoare, Obituaries in 1908, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1909. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
- "Charles Hoare". CricketArchive. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
- "St Barnabas Beckenham". Archived from the original on 6 October 2013. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
- Morris, p. 25
- Morris, p. 45
- Robson D (1999) New light shed on CB Fry: A brilliant cricketer, a memorable character, CricInfo, 20 September 1999. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
- Morris, p. 53
- Morris, p. 62
- Hutchings, p. 189
- Morris, p. 77
- Morris, p. 88
- Morris, p. 37