Founder of Trinity College of Music

Born in Malta, Henry George was the son of William Hunt and Maria née Bonavia. Brought up as a Protestant, he eventually joined the Anglicans. He studied at King’s College, London, and at Christ Church, Oxford graduating BA in music (1876). He obtained his DD from Dublin in 1877. He was ordained in the Anglican Church in 1878 and preached at Claremont before Queen Victoria’s youngest son the duke of Albany and his duchess. Bonavia Hunt enjoyed a wide reputation for his oratory. After holding several curacies (including that of St James’, Piccadilly), he was appointed vicar of St Paul’s church, Kilburn.

Bonavia Hunt’s interest in music started at an early age and he was also concerned with the status of musicians. Besides being warden of Trinity College for 20 years, he was the founder and the first warden of Kieburn Grammar School. He was also a lecturer in musical history at London University and was very active as writer and journalist. One of his chief works is Concise History of Music, a popular manual with students which had 19 editions. For many years he was editor of The Quiver and of Cassell’s Magazine. Of lasting importance is his founding of London’s Trinity College of Music.

Bonavia Hunt inaugurated a scheme of local examinations, now almost universally adopted by the great teaching bodies, especially music colleges and academies. This scheme spread rapidly in the UK and the dominions. In June 1872 Bonavia Hunt founded the Church Choral Society and College of Church Music in London with Sir Frederick A. Gore Ouseley, then professor of music at Oxford, as president. Bonavia Hunt’s wide musical and literary interests brought him into contact with leading artists and intellectuals of his time, including Tennyson, Guthrie, Tynan, Huxley, and Darwin. He was an ardent choralist and something of a composer.

Bonavia Hunt composed all genres of sacred music and his choir was so well-trained and renowned that members gradually ended up singing with prestigious choirs, such as those of Windsor’s Chapel Royal, Temple Church, and St Paul’s Cathedral. In recognition of his services to the cause of English musicianship, he was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, one of the most distinguished learned societies of the British empire.

Bonavia Hunt spent the last 12 years of his life as vicar of the parish church of St John the Evangelist, of Burgess Hill, Sussex (where a memorial tablet contains the Trinity College coat-of-arms), where he also lies buried.

Though Bonavia Hunt gave the impression of being a man of strong character, he was invariably affable to all. A generous man, he gave substantial sums to the building fund and other college projects. As early as 1883, he endowed an annual prize for the best essay on a subject connected with musical history. By the south stairway of the college there is a Shakespeare Window, dedicated ‘to the memory of Henry George Bonavia Hunt, Founder of this College’.

This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.