OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums The History Forum Company Histories SCOTT BONNAR - Chapel Street & Divett Place

Hello ODK History Lovers

I'm not sure I know where to start on this one. I have written about the
'pre-history' of the great Scott Bonnar Company - the premises of the man
Scott Bonnar - and the businesses he conducted at Young Street and Bloor
Court in inner Adelaide. If you like, this was the story before Mr Scott
Bonnar formed the company most know, Scott Bonnar Limited.

Here, I would like to record the first premises of the newly formed Scott
Bonnar Company of 1920. The Scott Bonnar Company was formed; it is said,
between two Bonnar brothers, Scott & Malcom. That may not be exactly true.

The company was situated at 3 Chapel Street, Thebarton, next to a corner
store and then, later, a motor garage, that would define the site's future.
Chapel Street was on the LH side heading outbound along Port Road. No 3
would have been the first property LH side, after the Port Road corner
block, heading down Chapel Street.

Nothing survives of the first premises today. Chapel Street is now a divided
street, and the Port Road and Chapel Street entry is really part of a large
vehicle dealership. I guess this is the heritage of the 1920's motor garage.

I guess this image symbolises the end of two great Australian manufacturers ...



TO BE CONTINUED ...

PART TWO - Location, Location, Location
The first premises of the newly formed Scott Bonnar Company seemed quite
different to the first two, where Scott acted as a sole proprietor.

Notice how Chapel Street is a bit 'out of the way' ... it wasn't in the CBD
or within walking distance of it. There would be no 'walk-by' trading and
quite different to Scott's Young Street and Bloor Court premises ... both
just off major, outer CBD roads.



I feel there was a reason for this. The main intended business was
wholesale brassware ... selling to hardwares via a catalogue system.
I have found no evidence of retail brassware activity.

However, there is indication that this outer location posed a problem
for the other side of the business - a now almost forgotten and un-recognised
side of the business - electric welding. The potential was unknown.

CHAPEL STREET Characters
The historically important Sands & McDougall Directory was revealing in the
'characters' that inhabited Chapel Street in those days. For example, the
1919 Directory says that Port Road was sprinkled with commercial premises.
Chapel Street was largely residential.

No 3 Chapel Street was used by W.H. Stevens, a French Polisher, and right
next door was George Moore, a Circus proprietor. Most of Chapel Street was
taken up with a typical snap shot of the times ... households of labourers,
but a few trades too (firemen, stokers, drivers, storekeepers, bootmakers ...

The first reference to Scott Bonnar being at Chapel Street is listed in the
1921 Directory. The last reference occurs in the 1931 Directory, suggesting
the Company used or owned these premises for a decade. Here is an extract
from the 1921 Directory:-



TO BE CONTINUED ...

PART THREE - Taking Care of Business
There were two main areas of business conducted by the fledgling Scott Bonnar
Company in the first three years. The main one was brassware, a trade Scott
learnt as an apprentice, and it would have involved foundry, machining and
finishing. This was conducted as a wholesale trade, with Scott Bonnar being
the manufacturer and supplier to the retail hardware trade.

At least, that's my guess; given the evidence and the lack of available
advertising associating the new company with this line in the first three
years of business - between 1920 and 1922. I assert this, too, on the basis
of Malcom Bonnar's Memoir, written in his later years ... that brassware
sustained the company in its early years.

ELECTRIC ARC WELDING
It was a surprise to discover, however, that the vast majority of newsprint
advertising at Chapel Street - in the first three years - concerned the
emerging use of electric arc welding!

Out of the sixty-odd newsprint ads I have found between 1920 and 1922 - and
if we exclude job ads and sundry - then every ad was about welding: oxy and
electric. This was the engineering sensation of the day. I include here two
representative ads from each year. 1920 YEAR:-




THE 1921 YEAR
An interesting observation is the Company's early use of the telephone
for business. Central 330 was Scott Bonnar's number for the first years
of operation. Perhaps this shows Brother Malcolm's influence; given his
training in telephony and his use of it in the First World War. Also note
the early use of the slogan in their advertising - Scott Bonnar was a
progressive and modern company.




... But I stop this part at the end of the 1921 year.
At the start of the third year, 1922, the Scott Bonnar Company gained
some notoriety - and free publicity - in 1922, when Malcolm Bonnar
successfully repaired a famous speed boat engine of the day, an imported
200hp Van Blerck. It is a story worth recording.

TO BE CONTINUED ...

PART FOUR - 1922 Power Boat Engine Repair
Malcolm explains the event in his March, 1971 Memoir. There are three
significant points worth recording. The first is Malcolm's claim that
Scott Bonnar had the "first electric welding plant in South Australia."

The second point goes to monopoly competition - and it's time-limited
advantage in this case. The Company did well for about three years, but
then, "the Engineering firms found they could purchase a plant and teach
their men in a few months to do all their steel work".

This is consistent with my evidence: the last welding advertisements
ended in late 1922. They do not appear again in newsprint advertising.

The third point is an observation. Malcolm's engine repair memory does
make it clear that electric welding did not save this broken engine casing.
It was foundry work! Malcolm was not trained in foundry work - but brother
Scott was ... I wonder who really saved the day ...?



I mention this for the record because the event was clearly memorable to
Malcolm Bonnar half a century later. It would have gained the company publicity
- and work - for the welding side of the business. The March, 1922 article below
gives us detail about the early history of power boat racing, the Rymill brothers,
and the Van Blerck engine ...



TO BE CONTINUED ...

PART FIVE - 1922 Divett Place
Divett Place is an anomaly. I have a few newsprint records from July,
1922 that show Scott Bonnar used another address alongside the Chapel
Street one. This was at 24 and then 22A Divett Place in the CBD. In
other words, Scott Bonnar was operating from two addresses: Chapel Street
and Divett Place.

I know this because all other newsprint advertisements show Chapel Street
as the company address; and these continued up until early 1923. After that,
one single address emerges ... Mill Street, Adelaide.




The building that housed the Company at Divett Place survives to this day,
and its short use and purpose by Scott Bonnar is open to speculation ...

My best guess is that the Company wanted to move back into the Adelaide
city heart - to capture welding jobs - probably in the automotive field
(cars, bikes, etc.). The ads, and architecture of the building, suggest
welding repair work was conducted via a drive-thru to a rear courtyard.




TO BE CONTINUED ...

PART SIX - The Photographs
We are lucky that two photographic records survive of the interior of
part of the Chapel Street premises. This is most amazing, and a random
quirk of history, that these early photos have been preserved. They are
held by the State Library of SA.

They had been captioned at January, 1921, and the second photo has
identified Mr Scott Bonnar on the far right. Note that he is wearing the more
formal hat. The photographer is unknown, perhaps Malcolm Bonnar himself?

PART SEVEN - Leslie Graham Gibbins
At the end of the third year of the new company a Notice appeared in the
Adelaide Advertiser on the 2nd November, 1922, dissolving a partnership
between three people: Scott and Malcolm, and one Leslie Graham Gibbens.



This had me perplexed for some time, until I had a breakthrough,this time
from an unpublished source. It was a brief biography of key members of the
Bonnar family. It was written by Deryck Skinner, whose grand aunt,
Isabel Fiveash, married Scott Bonnar.

The Explanation: The Scott Bonnar Company was registered on the
20th January, 1920. However, at that time, it was not a partnership,
with Scott acting as sole proprietor. Deryck Skinner says that,
'Malcolm's name did not become associated with the business until
13th April, 1920, when he, and Leslie Graham Gibbins bought into the
business.

It would appear, then, that this partnership was dissolved 30th October,
1922, with Mr Gibbins retiring from the firm. Otherwise, LG Gibbins is
a mystery - and his inclusion brings a new dimension to the early years of
the great Scott Bonnar Company.

I have discovered a few significant details about him.
The first is that he was an awarded war veteran of the First World War,
as a Sergeant in the AIF. This suggests to me a closer connection between
Malcolm Bonnar, rather than brother, Scott. It should also be noted that
Malcolm and Leslie entered the firm at the same time.

The second was that his Enlistment Papers do give an occupation: Accountant.
What role he specifically played in the firm has been lost to history, but
it is reasonable speculation that he played that role; but being a part of
a tri-part partnership suggests more. Perhaps he was a financier to the
company as well...

The third is the most significant, and it comes from Malcolm's own Summary
of his life in his 1971 Memoir.

It would be a high possibility that L.G. Gibbins was closely related to
Lorna Gibbins, whom Malcolm married in October, 1919. Perhaps he was a
brother or the father to Lorna?

[ed. Les Gibbins was a brother of Lorna Gibbins. Les was
Best Man at Malcolm and Lorna's wedding in late 1919.]

The Summary also confirms Malcolm's interests in all things electrical.
I might add that this paints a different light on the later partnership
between the two brothers that formed in late 1922. I mean, their first
mowers (in about 1923) were electrically powered.

Perhaps the Scott Bonnar partnership was a grand meeting of the two separate
minds and interests of the two brothers: Scott's mechanical disposition;
and Malcolm's electrical disposition. That's an interesting thought ...



TO BE CONTINUED ...

PART EIGHT - Conclusion
This topic has discussed the first premises of the Scott Bonnar Company,
at Chapel Street, Thebarton, Adelaide. I also covered a secondary location -
at Divett Place ... more as a short- duration location, which I have annexed
to the first and primary location.

Both locations are a reflection of the first three years' activities of the
company. It is part of a bigger story ... The Scott Bonnar Story.

I have been critical of that story - with too many gaps, unknowns, and the
restrictive (read one-sided) account of these events told in older brother
Malcolm Bonnar's 1971 Memoir. The Chapel Street premises should be looked
upon - in my reality - as really the third part of the location story, and
I have uncovered the two pre-Scott Bonnar Company locations at Young Street
and Bloor Court, when Scott Bonnar was acting as a sole proprietor.

The surprises from these stories are, no doubt, complex. I have attempted
to explain the outer CBD location -in the choice of Chapel Street - as a
reflection of the original intention and scope of the business ... brassware
manufacture and wholesale. It was a surprise when I realised the company did
not exactly begin as a partnership at all!

Within a few months the scope and intention appears to have changed - with
the forming of a partnership between three people: Scott, older brother
Malcolm, and Leslie Gibbins. The catalyst may have been the new invention
of electric welding and its potential to grow the original company
beyond brassware. Who knows?

For most readers the question will be: 'what about lawnmowers?'
That answer will come in the next part - about the Scott Bonnar
Company's next location, when both previous locations could be made
to work at one inner-city location: the important Mill Street -
a short side-street off famous Gouger Street, and so close to one of
the great Department Stores of the Day, Charles Moore's. It's a
fascinating story.

The rest is history.
-------------------------------------
Jack

Young Street Premises:
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=65140

Bloor Court Premises:
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/66047/MR_SCOTT_BONNAR's_Bloor_Court_.html


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