Beatrice Holme-Sumner

Beatrice Holme Sumner (12 July 1862 – 23 April 1946) was an English eccentric, for some sixty years the manager of a training ship for boys, TS Mercury. As the lover of Charles Hoare, she was a controversial figure in Victorian society of the 1880s and 1890s and was later the wife of C. B. Fry. Early life Sumner was born in Chelsea, Middlesex, on 12 July 1862, the daughter of Arthur Holme Sumner, of Hatchlands Park, East Clandon, Surrey, and his wife Georgina, into a family with notable and royal ancestors. She was christened at East Clandon on 7 September 1862. Becoming known as a beauty, at the age of sixteen Sumner came out into society and fell in love with Charles Hoare, Senior Partner in the C. Hoare & Co private bank. Hoare was almost twice her age and was already married, with five children. On the day of the Census of 3 April, 1881, Sumner is recorded as an eighteen-year old visitor in the household of Hoare and his wife Margaret in Cirencester.