Name
Vincent Robertson Hoare
15 March 1873
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
15/02/1915
41
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Major
London Regiment (The Rangers)
12th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES TOWN CEMETERY EXTENSION
III. A. 7.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
GOD PROVED THEM & FOUND THEM WORTHY FOR HIMSELF
UK & Other Memorials
St Mary’s Church Memorial, Ware, Ware Town Memorial, Great Amwell Village Memorial, St John the Baptist Church Memorial, Great Amwell, Not on the Berkhamsted memorials, Town Memorial, Colkirk, Norfolk, Eton College War Memorial, Berks Aviva (formerly Norwich Union) Memorial, Surrey House, Norwich
Pre War
Vincent Robertson Hoare was born on 15 March 1873 in Colkirk, Norfolk, the son of Reverend Walter Marsham and Jessie Mary Hoare (nee Robertson) and baptised on 25 April 1873 at Colkirk. He was one of seven children.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at the Rectory at Colkirk where his father was the Rector. He attended Eton College, Berkshire and left in 1892, then going to work for Hoare's Bank and was listed on the Electoral Register for Farringdon living at 37 Fleet Street from 1894 until 1904.
He played cricket for Cambridgeshire (1895-98) and Norfolk Cricket Club (1903-05).
He married Elsie Florence Hogg on 5 November 1901 in St Marylebone, London. From 1906 to 1913 he was listed on the Electoral Register for Paddington and living at 1 Devonshire Terrace.
Vincent was a driving force behind the establishment of the Territorial Force of the Westminster Polytechnic known as The Rangers in 1909, along with Lionel Studd (later to be killed in action and buried next to Vincent Hoare in Ypres Town Cemetery).
On the 1911 Census he was living at 37 Fleet Street, London (at Hoare's Bank) and working as a banker's agent to his cousin Edward Hoare in the City. His wife and children Isabel (6) and Quintin (3) were visitors at the home of Jessie Saunders in 24 Cambridge Gardens, Hastings, Sussex. Vincent also had two other children, Margaret born 1902 and Graham born 1913.
Later he was named as a Director of North British and Mercantile Insurance Company and made his home at Milton House, Berkhamsted.
Wartime Service
He was a trooper in the Suffolk Yeomanry and had served in the South African War of 1899-1902, afterwards gaining a commission. At the outbreak of war he obtained a commission with the 12th London Regiment (Rangers) and was promoted to Major in September 1914.
He entered France on 24 Dec 1914 with the 28th Division which was deployed to the front line of the Western Front around Ypres.
Vincent was killed in action on 15 February 1915 and is buried in Ypres Town Cemetery Extension, Belgium.
Additional Information
Cousin Edward Henry Hoare, banker, Francis John Kingdom Hull, solicitor and Douglas McGarel Hogg, barrister at law, obtained probate of his estate on 13 April 1915 with effects of £15,842 8s 6d. They received pay owing totalling £94 5s 2d.
His brother Walter served as Captain with the Hampshire Regiment (attached to the RAF) and survived the war.
N.B. C Hoare & Co, is said to be the oldest family-owned bank in the world, and still exists at 37 Fleet Street, London.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Malcolm Lennox, recordsandarchives,westminster.ac.uk.,www.masonicgreatwarproject.org.uk
