Today the deeds of two Buntons more than a century ago are known by less than several dozen people yet in their heyday they were both well-known but for vastly different reasons. Walter Bunton converted the Grand Hotel into the Bunton’s Grand Hotel, not a mere name change but a conversion into the greatest hotel in the emerging town, fit for the great and good of the Cape, the British Empire and beyond. Upon Walter’s death, his son, Henry, would assume control of the hotel.
On the other hand, Walter’s sister, Harriet Meyer, nee Bunton, had divergent interests. The one for which she made her name was promoting the building of an equestrian monument to commemorate the hundreds of thousands of horses killed during the Anglo Boer War.
Then their life’s candle would gutter and be snuffed out and the light which they shone on the world would gradually fade away, eventually to be forgotten. This blog is an attempt to correct this omission from history.
Main picture: Bunton’s Grand Hotel on the corner of Belmont Terrace and Prospect Hill. It was the most important hotel of its time.
Walter Bunton: An Hotelier at Heart
In the English census of 1851, the father of Walter and Harriet, John Pert Bunton, was listed as being the Landlord of an East Anglian Hotel in King’s Lynn, Norfolk. Harriet was born on the 6th October 1848 and Walter some four years later in 1852. One can only surmise that the reason for Walter’s interest in and understanding of what it takes to be a first rate hotel is a function of the essence of the industry being inculcated in him by assisting his father.
Nothing is known about the Bunton family of that era except that the siblings, Walter and Harriet, on separate occasions made a journey to Port Elizabeth. In an extant letter, mention is made of the fact that Harriet came out to visit a relative. That person must surely have been her brother, Walter who had arrived ahead of her.
The reason why Walter decided to set up a hotel in Graaff Reinett is lost in the mists of time. Playing a role in that decision were probably two factors. The overriding factor was that he already possessed an understanding of the hotel business. Secondly before rejecting Port Elizabeth as a possible site for his hotel, he would soon have realised that Port Elizabeth already possessed a surfeit of hotels with the Phoenix in Market Square and the Palmerson in Jetty Street leading the pack. Perhaps after travelling there he was smitten by the old-world charm of the location. In addition to the town, Walter was also smitten with Marie Louise Pfeiffer from Germany whom he duly married while in Graaff-Reinett. Their first two children, twins Alfred and Henry – aka Harry as PE folk would get to know him – were born in 1883.
Business must not have been flourishing having to compete with the likes of the well-established Drostdy Hotel in Graaff-Reinet resulting in the family relocating back to Port Elizabeth. Spotting the potential of the Grand Hotel away from the hustle and bustle of drunken sailors on Strand Street and its environs, Walter was probably enamoured with the hotel overlooking the town and harbour comprising one jetty, the North Jetty. He promptly acquired it in 1889. Initially the family probably resided in the hotel but later acquired Mavis Bank further down Belmont Terrace to use both as a personal residence and as well as an overflow facility for the hotel. The fact that Walter had to acquire a number of buildings in the vicinity is indicative of the popularity of this hotel.
The Byways to the Grand Hotel
In 1863, a strip of land above but parallel with White’s Road earmarked to be sold for the erection of houses, was sub-divided and then sold. The original building on the site was a house built in 1867 for Robert Dunlop Buchanan. Designed by Port Elizabeth architect, F M Pfeil, it became known as “Dunlop House“. Bordering the house were Prospect Hill, Belmont Terrace and White’s Road. On the opposite corner of White’s Road and Belmont Terrace was a small rectangular building with a distinctive steeply pitched A-frame roof. This building commenced life as the Diocesan Grammar School.
It is presumed that it was Brister who built the extension to the White’s Road side of the hotel. In June 1885 Brister advertised the house to let with 24 rooms. It is presumably after he extended it to White’s Road and constructed wonderful oriel bay windows looking out onto White’s Road, that it was Brister who did so. On 15 October 1885 Arnold Lipman opened the building as the Grand Hotel. Just less than four years later in March 1889 Walter Bunton took over and renamed it eponymously Bunton’s Grand Hotel. It swiftly gained a reputation as the most impressive place in which to stay. Extant photographs reveal how impressive the interior fittings were. In order to complement these fittings, in 1893 Bunton brought out a gaggle of obsequious Indian waiters. Dressed in their smart uniforms and matching turbans, these attentive Tamil waiters were an instant success.
Distinguished visitors
Over the years and especially over the period to the turn of the century under Walter Bunton’s able management, this hotel attracted some very influential guests. The most notable were Mark Twain out on a lecture tour in 1896, Sir Alfred Milner on an official tour in 1897, Cecil John Rhodes in 1898 as well as Field Marshall Lord Roberts in 1900. Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his nom de guerre Mark Twain, lauded as the greatest humourist that the United States had ever produced, would entertain the Port Elizabeth audiences with three shows. Not only was he a comedian par excellence, but he was also a gifted writer, publisher and lecturer. It was during part of his world tour that Twain would arrive at South Africa where he would hold performances at the coastal towns – Durban, East London and then Port Elizabeth. Arriving in Algoa Bay on Wednesday 17th June 1896, he would only present of the first of three shows on Monday 23rd June 1896. It was here that Twain presented his comedy, At Homes, where it was recorded that it was presented at the capacious Town Hall, and “excited a very large demand for seats.”
I classify this period of the hotel’s existence, as it heyday. Its main competition during this period were the venerable hotels, the Palmerston in Jetty Street and the Phoenix Hotel in Market Square. Neither had the cachet of the Grand as they mainly attracted the great unwashed, the hoi polloi and the rabble whose only purchase in venturing into a hotel was to down a beer.
Henry takes over
After the death of Walter Bunton in 1903, his wife, Marie Louise [nee Pfeiffer], took over management of with the hotel instead of Henry, their son as he was probably a callow immature youth. In the period 1911 to 1913 Walter’s widow, Marie LOuise, extended the hotel in brick on the Prospect Hill side. This extension was constructed under a reinforced concrete roof at a cost of £3,984. During this period, Walter’s son, Henry Arthur Bunton – aka Harry – assumed responsibility for running the hotel after inheriting it after his father’s death. Harry would marry Grace Isabelle Gilfillan.
Paula McLachlan recalls that her mother told her that Henry Bunton returned from WW1 having suffered severe injuries due to being gassed. I presume that this implies that he returned prematurely due to the effects of the gassing.
I presume that Henry’s mother, Marie Louise Pfeiffer, assisted Henry with managing the hotel, but after her death in 1917, his interests in farming came to the fore. It was just four years after her death in September 1921, that Henry sold the hotel. It appears that the sale did not include the annexe, Mavis Bank, diagonally across the road in Belmont Terrace as Grace and Henry initially stayed there. Diagonally opposite the Grand Hotel was the a new hotel which overtaken the Grand in the elegance stakes: The King Edward Hotel. In an act of generosity, Henry purchased two apartments behind this hotel and gave both his brother Alfred and his sister Dora each an apartment.
Elim farm
Henry had the conviction and foresight that his sons, Peter and John, should not grow up in a town. By implication they had to grow up on a farm. It is against this backdrop that Henry Bunton purchased three separate farms of 10 hectares each in the Sunday’s River valley which they named Elim Farm. The boys, Peter and John, would grow up on that farm and attend school at St. Andrews College in Grahamstown. On completion of his schooling, John continued his studies by attending Cape Town University to study mechanical engineering. Later he was offered a job by a great friend of his at Crown Mines near central Johannesburg, which he accepted.
Peter inherited the farm from Grace Isabell Gilfillan was her passing. Peter converted it into a Trust of which John McLachlan is a trustee and now runs the farm.
Tragedy of war
Peter matriculated a year later in 1939. He had always dreamed of being a veterinarian and went to Pretoria University to do his first year of veterinary science. However WW2 was to intercede. Before he had completed his studies, he joined the Union Defence Force, the UDF, as John had already joined the army. Whether by design or happenstance, both Peter and John were seconded to the 5th Field Artillery. John was killed at the first big battle of El Alamein. It was a devastating blow to the family from which it never recovered. Like countless others, John on the threshold of adult life, had his life snubbed out like a used unwanted cigarette.
In the book Seven Battles that Shaped South Africa by Greg Mills & David Williams, Peter Bunton is quoted as follows regarding the first Battle of El Alamein: “On 13 July [1942] at precisely midday shells started falling in our area and [then] we got the order, “Take Posts.” We fired and fired and then I saw the No. 2 gun had stopped firing. I was on No 1 gun [and] my brother [was] on No 2 gun. Later a 1-ton truck drove up to No. 2 gun and returned with a stretcher on the back. John was on that stretcher. The truck stopped – shells were falling. I greeted John hurriedly and the truck drove off. I never saw John again.”
Peter probably never had time to contemplate his own mortality that day as he states that “We fired all day and my gun was the only gun that didn’t go out of action. Our four guns fired 2 400 25-pounder shells and my gun was given credit for 800 of these.”
Peter survived the war, and after compassionate leave home, he was transferred to do various courses in Israel after which he was seconded to the Gordon Highlanders as an officer. Soon thereafter he was shot through the knee by a sniper. They operated on him up there and he was discharged from the army. Returning to Wits University, he recommenced studying his B.Sc. ab initio again.
Henry Bunton, knowing the horror of warfare, would have been proud of his two sons. There is a saying “there is no greater gift than to lay down one’s life for one’s country”.
Dr Peter Henry Bunton
Peter Henry Bunton’s father, Henry Arthur Bunton and his mother, Grace Isabel Gilfillan, started farming citrus on the farm ‘Elim’ in the Selbourne district of Uitenhage in 1923. His father died in July 1927 when Peter was 5 years old, and his mother Grace continued with the citrus farming. Peter’s elder brother, John Gilfillan Bunton, was killed in 1942 during WW2, and Peter inherited the farm. Peter was born on the 2nd of March 1922, possibly in Port Elizabeth, where his parents were living at that time before they moved to ‘Elim’. Peter Bunton matriculated from Espin House, St . Andrews College in Grahamstown at the end of 1939. During his high school years, he was awarded colours for both rugby and boxing and had been a school prefect and corporal in the Cadet Corps. He was also a keen polo player and represented South Africa in this sport. St Andrews College lauded him in May 2021 as their oldest’ Old Andrean’ at the age of 99. He was accepted into the veterinary faculty in 1939, and his student number (40005420) indicates that he started his first year in 1940.
He interrupted his studies during WW2, and after the end of the war, he returned to Onderstepoort and completed his degree, qualifying in 1950. He returned to the family farm ‘Elim’ in the Addo area, where he practised as a veterinarian, managed the large farm and played polo. He also promoted the development of game ranching in the 1970s and put it into practice on his extensive farm, becoming one of the leaders of this new form of farming. For many years, Peter worked as a wildlife veterinary specialist and an honorary veterinarian for Addo Elephant Park. He was active in the Addo area all his working life, getting deeply involved in conservation and the development of the Addo Elephant Park. Peter is part of the Addo Park’s history. He was reluctant to have lions introduced into the Addo Park in late 2003 since the Addo Park animals had never previously had any large predators. The first year that the lions were resident in the park confirmed his fears as the whole disease-free Buffalo calf herd was wiped out. Thankfully the animals quickly learnt to live with these predators and defend their calves.
Peter died during 2024 at the age of 102. Being a bachelor with no male offspring, the Bunton lineage has become extinct on his death.
Harriet Mary Meyer nee Bunton
Most residents can relate to the Horse Memorial now residing in Cape Road close to Rink Street. However only several could recount who was the driving force behind its construction For this reason Harriet Mary Meyer nee Bunton should be remembered.
Harriet Mary Bunton (born in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, on the 6th October 1848 and Ernst Gustav Meyer (born Neustrelitz, Germany, 24/4/1841) were married in Port Elizabeth in April 1876. I do not know how either of them came to be in South Africa, but each must have come out as a young adult, and not with their parents. Penelope Forrest came across the tantalising suggestion in a newspaper obituary, that Harriet had come out to visit relatives. Her younger brother Walter Bunton must have been the relative mentioned.
Initially Harriet and Gustav had two stillborn children and then a daughter, Ethel Hildegard, born 31st December 1879 and a son, Ernst Gustav (later known as Ernest), born 24th June 1883. These two were both born in Port Elizabeth and baptised in the Lutheran Church, as far as is known. The family moved to Kimberley but at this time there were not adequate schools there and the children were sent to their father’s brother and his family in Neustrelitz, Germany. Penelope has two very touching letters from Gustav to the children, which his daughter kept all her life. Harriet could not bear being parted from both children, so went to bring Ernest home, though Hildegard remained in Germany, where she received her education and musical training. Mrs Meyer and her son returned to Port Elizabeth. Gustav died in Kimberley on 3rd November 1896.
Maybe due to her sadness at her loss, Harriet got involved in other issues as a distraction. By late 1899, the Boer War had erupted. This is just what Harriet could expend her energy on. Margaret Harradine records that on the 4th December 1899, a Soldiers’ Comforts Committee, with the Mayor as Chairman, was formed. At a further meeting on 14 December, W.F. Savage was elected permanent Chairman and representatives of the churches as well as the WCTU and Ladies’Benevolent Society were involved. At a purely local level, a subsidiary, the Soldiers’ Reception Committee, under Mrs. Harriet Meyer, saw to it that soldiers were provided with refreshments before their trains left for the interior and they were given “extras” to take with them. Returning men were also catered for.
During the war, Port Elizabeth became the de facto equestrian capital of the country. To replenish the thousands of horses killed, replacements were imported in droves. These animals were initially housed at a huge Remount Centre near the PE Show Ground. For whatever reason, Harriet took pity on their ill-treated and abused creatures and began to advocate for the erection of a monument to celebrate their contribution to the war. Her proposal was that people should donate only one penny. As most foreign troops disembarked in Port Elizabeth, donations could also be solicited from them.
Whatever event influenced her opinion, Harriet Meyer of Mavis Bank House, initiated a drive for the creation of a memorial to the horses, with the support of members of the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and the Cattle Trough Association. It was this body that was responsible for the design of the Memorial but the origin of the inscription upon it was, for a long time, obscure. It was only decades later that the origin of this profound maxim was revealed. Dr. R.M. Leith expressed the opinion that the words are based upon passages occurring in the work “A Crown of Wild Olives,” written by the Victorian writer and philosopher, John Ruskin. Not that these words appear in the succinct, crisp form as the Memorial’s inscription but in a more verbose form. The final proof that these words were indeed purloined from John Ruskin’s erudition, was the fact that Harriet Meyer’s copy of “A Crown of Wild Olives” naturally falls open at certain pages. This proves, without a doubt, that it was these words of inspiration that swirled and coalesced in Meyer’s mind to emerge succinctly stated by Meyer:
The greatness of a Nation
Consists not so much in the number of its people
Or the extent of its territory
As in the extent and justice of its compassion
Harriet left PE and moved to Durban soon after the end of the Second Anglo Boer War and died in Pietermaritzburg on the 8th March 1921.
The obituary in a newspaper cutting, marked “P. E. 23.3.1921” which reads as follows: “The passing away of Mrs Gustave Meyer a few days ago brings the many women, who knew her splendid work during the Boer War, to the salute. She was a fine organiser, an indefatigable worker, and did her utmost best for King and Country during that strenuous period.
What the town of Port Elizabeth has cause to remember her by is the beautiful and much admired Horse Statue in Park Drive. It is an everlasting monument to Mrs Meyer’s thoroughness and ability, and through her to the capability of her sex, for it is the one perfect piece of town adornment which defies even a shadow of criticism.
What the general public do not know is the fight Mrs Meyer had to wage to give us that lovely statue. Against the odds of opposition and ridicule she held on her way, gathering in the smallest subscriptions. The correspondence alone entailed was unbelievable. It was her ambition that each mounted soldier should contribute a minimum of a penny, and any of our collectors will know what that means. She chose the site and “because of her importunity”, got it. It was through her artistic sense that the particular design was carried out, and in the light of her high ideals she chose the fine wording inscribed on the granite pedestal.
All honour to the memory of Mrs Gustave Meyer; well has she earned the salute.”
Sources
https://www.sacschool.com/2021/05/28/celebrating-our-oldest-oa/
https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/85020/hc_DrBunton_Biography.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
https://www.chrislin.co.za/memories-early-addo-elephant-park
Notes by Penelope Forrest of Cape Town
Information and photos provided by Paula of Plettenberg Bay & Juanita McLachlan of Elim Farm
Hills Covered with Cottages: Port Elizabeth’s Lost Streetscapes by Margaret Harradine (2010, Express Copy & Print, Port Elizabeth)
Port Elizabeth: A Social Chronicle to the end of 1945 by Margaret Harradine (1996, E H Walton Packaging
(Pty) Ltd, Port Elizabeth, on behalf of the Historical Society of Port Elizabeth).
The Walter Bunton wing of the Bunton family
