John Thackray Bunce

Born in Faringdon on April 11, 1828, and raised from childhood in Birmingham, John Thackray Bunce began working young as a printer's apprentice before moving into reporting. He later became editor of Aris's Birmingham Gazette and then, for more than three decades, editor of the Birmingham Post, making him an important voice in the public life of the city.

Bunce was more than a newspaper man. He wrote on Birmingham's institutions and notable figures, including works on the artist David Cox, Josiah Mason, St Martin's Church, and the history of the Birmingham General Hospital and the corporation of Birmingham. He also wrote for children, and Fairy Tales: Their Origin and Meaning remains one of his best-known books today.

His interests reached into education, art, and politics as well. He helped support causes such as public education, Birmingham's cultural institutions, and the Birmingham Municipal School of Art, and he was involved in Liberal political organizing in the late nineteenth century. He died in Birmingham on June 28, 1899, after a career closely tied to the city's intellectual and civic growth.