Charles Arthur Richard Hoare (18 May 1847 – 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.
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. 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] 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, Hoare retired to Hall Place, West Meon where he died in May 1908 aged 61 after a long illness.[14]
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]