Coventry Society founder member Paul Maddocks has been reading a new book about a local artist and the search for his long-lost family relative. His review follows.
I have just finished reading this new book, After Bunney: The Search for My Great-Great Uncle, by Christopher John Sidwell and Stephen John Mayo.
Christopher Sidwell, a retired local teacher of art, crafts and music, now spends his time playing guitar, singing and writing songs with two different bands. He also enjoys sketching views of Coventry. More recently, he has taken up researching his family history.
When Christopher was a child, his mother would often say, “You take after your great-great-uncle – he was good at art.” At the time, he thought little of it, as this long-lost relative had died in 1928.
Many of us have looked into our own family history, or watched television programmes such as Who Do You Think You Are?, where celebrities discover fascinating stories about their ancestors. Some even hope to find talented relatives who were artists, musicians or actors, and wonder whether those abilities have been passed down through the family.
So who was Christopher’s distant uncle?
It turns out that he was Sydney John Bunney, a working-class artist born in Coventry. The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum holds 523 of his artworks, including landscapes, sketches and albums. Sadly, only a small selection is displayed to the public from time to time.
So, how do you begin researching a family tree and uncover the story of a relative who died nearly 100 years ago? The first step is to find someone who knows how to do it. In Christopher’s case, that was his old school friend Stephen John Mayo.
Stephen’s expertise helped them trace birth, marriage and death certificates, newspaper reports, maps and census records, with invaluable assistance from the staff at Coventry City Archives. Christopher also contacted as many family members as possible, leading to the discovery of an old photograph album containing family snapshots, including what is believed to be a photograph of Sydney Bunney and his wife, Eliza.
The book follows Sydney’s life from his birth in Raglan Street and his early years in Hillfields. Sadly, none of the places where he lived or studied still exists. He met his wife while studying at Coventry School of Art. She came from Earlsdon, where they settled and spent the rest of his life together.
I won’t reveal the whole story, as that would spoil the enjoyment of reading the book yourself.
One thing this publication makes clear is that there is still much we do not know about Coventry’s history. Through his sketches and paintings, Sydney Bunney captured what the city looked like between the two World Wars. As we all know, much of Coventry was destroyed during the Blitz, but many buildings and streets survived. Christopher has revisited many of the locations his great-great-uncle sketched, producing his own modern interpretations of the same scenes. Comparing the historic and present-day views is fascinating.
Hopefully, the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum will soon be able to display more of Sydney John Bunney’s paintings, watercolours and sketches in a special exhibition, especially now that we know so much more about his life.
The Coventry Society has invited Christopher Sidwell to speak about Sydney Bunney and the book at our December meeting, where copies of the book will also be available to purchase.
Copies cost £9.99, with free delivery to addresses in the Coventry CV1–CV6 postcode areas. They can be purchased from Christopher’s website.
The BBC West Midlands News also featured an excellent article about the book and Sydney Bunney.
