FRY (Charles Burgess, 1872-1956, Represented Britain at Soccer, Cricket and Athletics, World Record Long Jump Holder)

Fine Signature 'Charles B. Fry Capt RNR' with a small sketch of a galloping horse, 3¾" x 3¼", no place, no date, circa

In December 1908 he became the Captain Superintendent of the Training Ship Mercury, a nautical school primarily designed to prepare boys for service in the Royal Navy; this was run by his wife Beatrice from 1885 to 1946, she having founded the school with her lover (and father of her illegitimate children), the rich banker Charles Hoare. She subjected the boys, 'hounded from morn to night', to 'barbarities' including ceremonial floggings of extreme violence and forced boxing matches inflicted as punishment. Fry held this position until he resigned to make way for a younger man in 1950. Eventually he was given the rank of captain in the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR). John Arlott described him thus: "Charles Fry could be autocratic, angry and self-willed: he was also magnanimous, extravagant, generous, elegant, brilliant – and fun ... he was probably the most variously gifted Englishman of any age."

Item Date:  1950

Stock No:  41445      £75

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