The Training Ship
Mercury was one of a number of similar, mostly static
training ships located round the coasts of Britain and founded during the Victorian period to provide boy recruits for the Royal Navy and mercantile marine. It was founded in 1885 as a charitable venture by
Charles Arthur Richard Hoare, a partner in the banking firm of
C. Hoare & Co, with the objective of rescuing poor boys of good character and training them for naval service. Initially the facility was based at
Binstead on the Isle of Wight where the boys lived in the
barque Illovo, which was renamed
Mercury. Over the years the establishment was increasingly managed by Charles Hoare's mistress
Beatrice Holme Sumner, with whom he was to have a son (
Robin Hoare) and a daughter. The entire establishment was moved from Binstead to
Hamble near Southampton in 1892. In June 1898, Beatrice Holme-Sumner married
C. B. Fry, the great England cricketer and all-round sportsman, and in 1908, after the death of Hoare, Fry became the
Mercurys Captain-Superintendent. In 1914, the former Royal Navy sloop
HMS Gannet was loaned from the Admiralty for use mainly as a floating dormitory and the old
Illovo was sold in 1916. In 1950 C.B. Fry retired and handed over command of TS
Mercury to Commander
Matthew Bradby RN Rtd. Its last Captain Superintendent was Commander R. F. Hoyle RNR who took charge in 1960 and operated it for eight years before TS
Mercury was closed in 1968. The shore establishment was later cleared for a housing development. Memorials to TS
Mercury and the 5,000 boys it trained for service at sea in both the Royal and Merchant Navies are located at Hamble Parish Church and near the former TS
Mercury slipway. HMS
Gannet was towed out of the Hamble River in 1970 and is now restored and preserved at the
Chatham Historic Dockyard. ==References==