John Thackray Bunce

John Thackray Bunce (11 April 1828 – 28 June 1899) was a British journalist and writer. He served as editor of Aris's Birmingham Gazette from 1860 to 1862, and of the Birmingham Post from 1862 to 1898.

Early years

Bunce was born in Faringdon, Berkshire, to John Bunce, watchmaker and silversmith, and his wife, Mary, née Clapham. Mary's mother's maiden name had been Thackray. The family moved to Birmingham when Bunce was nine and he attended Gem Street elementary branch school, operated by the Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI.

Journalism

Aged 14, Bunce left school and began work as a printer's apprentice with the Midland Counties Herald, a newspaper. He was given a job as a reporter after writing a letter, anonymously, calling for Birmingham to have an art gallery. He left the Herald in 1852 to work for another Birmingham paper, Aris's Birmingham Gazette, and was promoted as its editor in 1860. The Gazette followed a tory line and Bunce was increasingly of a liberal persuasion, eventually resigning after hearing an address by John Bright. In 1862, he became editor of the more liberal Birmingham Daily Post.

An antiquarian, he wrote a number of books on the history of Birmingham institutions and people, including St Martin's church, the artist David Cox and industrialist Josiah Mason, as well as books for children.

He also wrote for The Fortnightly Review, Macmillan's Magazine, and National Review and became a founding fellow of the Institute of Journalists (later the Chartered Institute of Journalists) in 1889.