▶Date of birth: 30 January 1864         Place of birth: Sarn Vicarage, Newton, Montgomeryshire

▶Father: Richard Hoare      Mother: Susanna Averill

▶Spouse(s): Kate Cope Diggory     Date(s) of marriage:   22 June 1893    Place(s) of marriage: Church Gresley Church, Derbyshire

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Anglican)

▶Lifestory: Frederic (also Frederick) Richard Averill Hoare’s first post was as a Curate in Cheltenham; he was proud of his active work in the Church but became depressed and ended his life in his late fifties. Hoare was born in Sarn Vicarage, Newton, Montgomeryshire, the eldest son of the Revd. Richard Hoare, and his wife Susannah (née Averill). Hoare attended Islington Proprietary school and Merchant Taylors’ School 1876-81, before matriculating at Christ’s College, Cambridge in 1883, BA 1886, MA 1891. He was ordained Deacon  in 1887, and Priest (both Gloucester and Bristol) in 1888.

In 1887 he was licensed Curate of St Paul’s, Cheltenham; between 1888 and 1889 he lived at 7 Clarence Square in Pittville. In 1889 he left Cheltenham to become Curate of St Mark’s, Wolverhampton until he was installed as Vicar of Church Gresley, Burton-on-Trent 1892-1919; during the course of his twenty-year ministry at Gresley he is said to have baptised 955 children and adults, to have officiated at 410 marriages, and to have preached nearly 2,400 sermons. In 1893 he married Kate Cope, only daughter of Mr Frederick Diggory, of Wilton Lodge, at Church Gresley. For the last three years of his life he served as Rector of Birkin and Beal, near Selby, Yorkshire.

Hoare died suddenly; he took his own life in 1922, at the age of fifty-eight, leaving a suicide note saying that he no longer found life bearable. His body was found after several days, drowned in the Aire and Calder canal after he had taken a walk along the canal-side, ostensibly to post a letter. Although he was popular with “the poor of the parish”, there was “a certain section” who “were hostile to him", over who should pay the tithe rate; the inquest found that he had suffered a mental breakdown in 1915, and that he felt that his living was not sufficient to keep him and his family; the recent dispute over the payment of the church rate seemed to have sent him into a depression (the coroner’s verdict was “suicide while of unsound mind”).

Hoare was buried in the family grave at Sidmouth, Devon; his estate at death was sworn at just under £1,350.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  (uncertain)      Moved from Pittville to: Wolverhampton

▶Date of death:  21 September 1922      Place of death: Gateforth, Yorkshire

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial: Sidmouth, Devon

▶Notes:  Leeds Mercury 25 September 1922      ID: 5488

Contributor(s):  John Simpson/Alan Munden