Percy Bunting

Grave of Percy William Bunting in Highgate Cemetery

He was born at Radcliffe, Lancashire, son of Eliza and Thomas Percival Bunting, and grandson of Wesleyan divine Jabez Bunting. A younger sister was Sarah Maclardie Amos.

He was educated at Owen's College, Manchester, and Pembroke College, Cambridge, where, in 1859, he was classed as 21st wrangler. Three years later he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn. In 1882, he became editor of The Contemporary Review, and henceforth devoted himself to journalism, becoming also editor of the Methodist Times from 1902 to 1907, in succession to Hugh Price Hughes. In July 1908 he was knighted. Throughout his life, he was an active supporter of Wesleyan Methodism. He lived at Endsleigh Gardens in Bloomsbury, London.[1][2]

He married on 21 June 1869 Mary Hyett (1840–1919), elder sister of Elizabeth Lidgett.[3] Their son Sidney Percival Bunting became a leader of the South African Communist Party.

Bunting died on 22nd July 1911 and was buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery.

• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bunting, Jabez" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Bunting, Sir Percy William". Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company.

• Guide to the Sir Percy William Bunting Papers 1882-1911 at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center