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Noel Bonavia-Hunt - Part 1: His life and times
Colin Pykett
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge" Stephen Hawking
Posted: 23 July 2024 Revised: 29 July 2024 Copyright © C E Pykett
Abstract. Noel Bonavia-Hunt is known mainly for his work associated with the organ, but he was also active in many other fields including early radio and electronics, chess problems, musical composition, voice production, medicine and Latin verse. However only in the last was he professionally qualified. He practised as an amateur in the other fields having undertaken no recognised form of tuition or training relevant to any of them. Nevertheless this did not inhibit him publishing prolifically, and within each topic he thereby attracted an audience. However it was his bizarre activities as an unqualified practitioner of medicine which most starkly demonstrate his approach to his work. Blissfully unaware of his limitations, some of his stories are so implausible that one wonders whether he was more than merely eccentric, and one therefore cannot help questioning the reality of his accounts.
Against this can be set the fact that some of his work regarding the organ was undoubtedly valuable. His extensive research on diapasons, which dominated his entire life, is of considerable interest. However he seemed to think that this and similar activities related to the other classes of organ tone (strings, flutes and reeds) somehow made him an expert voicer, whereas he had bypassed the years of careful training which a genuine practitioner would have undergone. Although from the age of twenty he embraced the habit of revoicing just about every organ he came across, it is unclear whence he had derived the necessary skills, what those skills actually amounted to in reality, why an inexperienced amateur was given so free a hand, and why all these instruments needed this level of attention in the first place.
It therefore seems astonishing that Hunt was able to wield such influence for so long over highly qualified and experienced professional musicians and organ builders, together with their customers. It is equally remarkable that these professions submitted so meekly to his instructions and advice.
For reasons of length this article is partitioned into two sections. Part 1 (this one) deals with his life and times, and part 2 [1] with his work and legacy.
Contents (click on the headings below to access the desired section)
This article is a biographical sketch of Noel Bonavia-Hunt to set his work in the context of his life and times. It is the first of two since it would not be practical to include everything within a single web page. The sequel, Part 2, focuses on his work and legacy, mainly that related to organs, and it can be accessed at reference [1].
The Reverend Noel Aubrey Bonavia-Hunt (1882-1965) remains well known for his work on matters connected with the organ. He was among the last of a line of similar luminaries who dominated the organ advisory scene in Britain for about a hundred years, beginning around 1850 with the appearance of Hopkins and Rimbault's still-influential work The Organ [2]. This was followed by G A Audsley's The Art of Organ Building in 1905 [3], and then works appeared subsequently by others such as George Dixon, Cecil Clutton and W L Sumner. The last-named in effect updated Hopkins and Rimbault's book with his own, also titled The Organ, which was published a century later in 1952 [4].
Although by no means a complete list, those mentioned typified a species of organ specialist of which Hunt himself was a member and they exerted considerable influence. However, aside from Hopkins and Rimbault, I have no evidence that they possessed a single professional music qualification between them (though I am ready to be corrected), and they cheerfully trespassed into other fields which lay well beyond their expertise. Audsley, for instance, insisted that sound propagated, not as a wave motion in air, but by means of mysterious material particles emitted by the source. Although unqualified in medicine, Hunt himself administered his own nostrums and undertook invasive procedures on patients. Again apart from Hopkins and Rimbault, their day jobs and qualifications were distanced from organs. Audsley was an architect, Dixon a military officer, Clutton a real estate agent and Sumner a physics teacher turned educationist. Hunt himself was an Anglican clergyman. So they were amateurs when dealing with the organ. Clutton was equally active in antiques and classic cars, where an obituary confirmed him as "a 100% amateur enthusiast". It therefore seems more than a little astonishing that they were able to wield influence for so long over highly qualified and experienced professional musicians and organ builders, together with their customers. It is equally remarkable that these professions submitted so meekly to them. The reason was probably a reflection of that deep-rooted British tradition which had long promoted the "gentleman amateur" into many walks of life, a trend which had yet to give way to a fledgling meritocracy which began to displace it in the later twentieth century. Balogh's Apotheosis of the Dilettante was far from being confined to the civil service in those days.
All of them published, in some cases prolifically, which is why their names are still familiar to us, and their works undoubtedly remain an interesting resource. However their literary heritage has to be used with care in view of the foregoing. One reason why I have selected Bonavia-Hunt as the focus for study is that he has left a fascinating and revealing autobiography which positions his activities in the context of his life and times. It enables us to better assess his legacy and it will now be discussed. This article is the first of two since it would not be practical to include everything within a single web page. Its sequel [1] expands further into details of his work on organs and, to a lesser extent, the other activities which he undertook
Irons in the fire is the title of Hunt's autobiography [5]. Published in 1959, his 77th year, the book begins with his paternal Maltese heritage whence arose his hyphenated name, and not everyone is aware that Bonavia should be pronounced Bonaveer. Noel was born in London on Christmas Day 1882. His father, a strict and narrow-minded disciplinarian with some unpleasant character traits, obviously had a major influence on him which might not always have been to his advantage. Hunt senior was successively an editor and author with the publishing house of Cassell and Company, was ordained into the Church of England, and founded Trinity College London which later specialised in music tuition. Equipped with his bachelor's degree and doctorate in music he became a well-connected figure of influence in London's ecclesiastical, musical and literary circles of the late nineteenth century. Noel's mother was also a published author via Cassell's, and this dual parental connection with the publishing business might have assisted Noel to launch so readily into print in later life.
At the age of nine he was sent to a boarding school where shocking abuse on the part of fellow students and staff was rampant. In describing the verbal, emotional and physical violence in detail he also hints at more sinister aspects - the senior master personally bathed each boy weekly before dousing him in cold water. "How pleased [he] looked at the sight of our shrinking bodies" wrote Hunt. Still worse was to come when one pupil was blinded by another master who had shot him with a rifle, yet there was no mention of retribution or of justice being done. Despite all this, Hunt seems to have regarded his lot with equanimity. He wrote "even after the very strict discipline experienced at home and school I do not think I am any the worse for it". Things improved when he won a classics scholarship to Leamington College at fourteen. Remaining there for four years, he composed music and contributed articles to Musical Opinion on organ construction (of which he had no independent knowledge or experience), while at fifteen he was asked at short notice by the music master to tune the Trumpet stop on the college organ.
Leaving Leamington at eighteen, Hunt worked uneventfully in banking for a couple of years at the direction of his evidently dominant father. He then went up to Oxford in 1903, aged twenty, where he first entered Marcon's Hall. Subsequently he went on to Pembroke College where he achieved an MA in classics, revoicing the organs at Keble College, St John's church, Cowley and Pembroke itself along the way. However it is unclear whence he had derived the necessary skills, what those skills actually amounted to in reality, why an inexperienced amateur barely out of his teens was given so free a hand, and why all these instruments needed this level of attention in the first place. Nevertheless, the Master of Pembroke College apparently expressed astonishment at "the great improvement effected" as a result of his intervention there. The National Pipe Organ Register mentions that the alterations at Pembroke under his hand took place in 1905 [6].
On graduating from Oxford he was ordained deacon in the Church of England in 1905 and licensed to an assistant curacy at St Matthew's church, Willesden in north London. He tells us that he had already designed a new organ which was duly installed there soon after his arrival. Built by H S Vincent, it still bears a plate stating that it was "designed by Noel Bonavia-Hunt, Organ Architect, 1905". This was a substantial instrument, so again we are led to conjecture whence he had acquired his growing reputation at only 22 years of age. It is odd that the autobiography, which is elsewhere so self-congratulatory, is silent on these matters.
A couple of years later he was ordained priest in 1907 while remaining an almost perpetual curate for some thirty years thereafter. Hunt remained at Willesden for seven years, after which he became curate at St Andrew's, Uxbridge c. 1912 where he (quote) "improved" the small organ by revoicing some stops, though he was later obliged to leave on the resignation of the vicar whose successor installed his own curates and gave him notice. Wishing to remain in the London diocese, he applied successfully for the assistant curacy at All Saints church, St John's Wood. As the first world war had by then broken out the former organist there had been drafted into the service of his country, to be replaced by the gifted fifteen-year-old Osborne Peasgood who eventually succeeded to the post of acting organist at Westminster Abbey.
During this phase of his career things began to accelerate for Hunt as far as organs were concerned. Firstly, and continuing the habit we have observed already, he undertook some revoicing of the organ at All Saints. Throughout his life he seemed unable to resist revoicing the organs he came across on every possible occasion. He was also sometimes approached by organ builders to act as an arbitrator in cases where the customer was dissatisfied. On one occasion he was asked to visit Scotland but in the event did not have to make the journey - after the builder telegraphed the customer with the words "Bonavia-Hunt coming Thursday, his report final" the formerly stout party apparently collapsed and sent full payment immediately.
From 1918 onwards Hunt was permitted by the bishop to devote his weekdays to organ work only, thus becoming merely a "Sunday curate" but at a reduced stipend. By then he had languished as a lowly curate for some thirteen years, nudging one to speculate whether his obsession with organs had interfered excessively with his actual job of curing souls. But whatever the reason, he was now free to pursue his hobby to an even greater extent, the clerical sinecure enabling him to forge a loose business arrangement with an organ builder, not named in the book but thought to be G H C Foskett. Between them they built or rebuilt some 130 organs by 1930, though presumably it was Foskett's who did most of the actual building. To facilitate his side of the deal, Hunt was permitted to set up a voicing shop in the tower of All Saints church to support his functions in the tonal department of the enterprise. He regarded the organ in St George's church, Kidderminster as his masterpiece from that period where he describes himself as an "honorary consultant" as well as an "organ designer". He also gives us the briefest of insights as to the source of his voicing skills through lessons from F W Pike, a pipe maker and voicer in Camden Town. This was apparently followed by instruction from Henry Willis III himself on the art of curving the brass tongues of reed pipes. As part of this education process he was also apparently invited (why?) by Sir Walter Alcock to make measurements of the pipework of Father Willis's masterpiece at Salisbury cathedral as well as noting how the reed tongues were curved. It strikes me as unusual that this would have been encouraged, since it would have involved allowing an amateur to dismantle many pipes of this precious instrument.
In his book Hunt barely mentions the first world war, which had started not long before he assumed his curacy at All Saints. One might enquire why he, then in his early thirties, was not drafted into it at some point. The probable reason is that a clergyman was then secure in a Scheduled Occupation which exempted him from service (not the case during the second war). It is therefore likely that he suddenly found himself to be the right man in the right place at the right time, since many organ builders would have had great difficulties continuing with their businesses even if they themselves were not liable for military service. These problems would have included loss of staff and the procurement of both contracts and materials. So Hunt would quite likely have found opportunities to pursue his hobby opening up on a grand scale both during and after the war. This might explain, at least partially, why his bishop freed him completely from parish duties during the week when the war ended in 1918, since its deprivations would have devastated the trade and left many churches without functioning organs or any organ at all. He would have been able to partly fill this vacuum with the accelerated level of activity outlined above.
During the 1920s and 30s his reputation must have crossed the Atlantic since he was asked to provide some pipework for the Moller organ at West Point military academy as well as for other instruments in the USA. On one occasion he was asked to go "at once" to oversee the voicing of a Schulze-type diapason chorus in Midmer-Losh's mammoth instrument at the Convention Hall in Atlantic City. However this prestigious invitation was apparently declined on the grounds that he could not conscientiously leave the vicar of All Saints in sole charge, which seems a trifle implausible considering that Hunt was by then only present in church on Sundays in any event.
With the arrival of a new vicar at All Saints, Hunt resigned. He does not explain why but tells that he accepted an invitation to assist at Great Gaddesden near Hemel Hempstead, again on a Sundays-only basis. While there, we should now be able to guess that he revoiced and added further stops to the organ, and he also revoiced the "Positive" organ at the associated mission church. This might refer to the Casson line of small instruments of that name, though one source suggests the result was less than successful [7] . However he did not stay long in the post as the vicar died unexpectedly and he returned to London. Being now unattached to a church, he became a member of the bishop's Special Service Registry which provided short-term cover for parishes in the event that their incumbent was absent or indisposed. In 1937 he heard that the living at Stagsden, a small village near Bedford, had become vacant, so he applied for it and was accepted. Mentioning that he had not previously come across this isolated spot, he boasts that he "left it rather better known" both in this country and in America, though presumably this only applied within the rather narrow world of the organ. We note, therefore, that he did not succeed to his own and only vicariate until he had reached the age of 54.
Hunt seems to have found contentment there. The Stagsden organ, or rather the things that he did to it, figures in several of his subsequent publications. When he resigned in 1955 at the age of 72 he had been there for eighteen years. He lived quietly thereafter in retirement, on his own apart from various housekeepers since he never married, but continued to cultivate his interests in the several activities besides the organ which will be described in part 2 of the article [1]. Irons in the fire appeared in 1959, together with other publications which he boasted were manifestations of the "superactive brain" he apparently possessed. However, like many in their later years who sense life veering away from them, he reflected regretfully on the way society was evolving following the second world war (during which his age allowed him to escape conscription). He certainly would not have been at all in tune with the swinging sixties. Although claiming that he was "no laudator temporis acti" (one who praises past times), his book rather suggests otherwise. Nor was he a wealthy man since, inexplicably, he felt obliged to clarify for his readers how he had managed to purchase a modest cottage for his retirement. Reading between the lines at this point suggests that he might have inherited little or nothing from his parents, perhaps a telling fragment which might speak of an uneasy relationship with a dominant father to the end. In his book he expressed no emotion at the death of either of them. Hunt himself died in 1965 at the age of 82.
He revealed in the book a definite interest in psychical matters and claimed to have experienced various phenomena including prescient dreams. Other manifestations such as spirit writing were also reported on the part of family members, sometimes conveying messages which he believed were intended for himself. It is therefore possible that Hunt was drawn to spiritualism in later life, though he would have had to be cautious about how widely he revealed it during his career as an Anglican priest, particularly while his doctrinaire father was still alive [8].
1. "Noel Bonavia-Hunt - Part 2: his work and
legacy", an article on this website.
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