Arthur William Bayly, publisher, newspaper proprietor and merchant, was the son of William Bayly and his wife Hannah, born Kitchner. He was educated in Southampton and London, and came to South Africa in 1879. In 1883 he married Mary Olive Hope Brodrick, with whom he had two sons and two daughters. Shortly after the discovery of gold near present Barberton he moved there and in April 1886 founded the Barberton Herald and Transvaal Mining Mail. The paper was merged with the Gold Fields News in September 1892 to form the Gold Fields News and Barberton Herald. In 1898 he established a branch of his firm, A.W. Bayly and Co., general merchants, at Lourenco Marques (now Maputo, Mozambique) and settled there. The firm gradually expanded its activities and was described as "music depot, booksellers, stationers, circulating library, printers and general merchants" in the General directory of South Africa in 1908, later also as "photographer and seed merchants" (1916). In 1905 Bayly started the Lourenco Marques Guardian and later also published the Delagoa Directory.

"Mr Bayly" presented a collection of fishes from Delagoa Bay (now Baia De Maputo) to J.D.F. Gilchrist* at the South African Museum, Cape Town, in 1908. Most were new to the museum, while some represented new species and genera. The next year Bayly assisted Gilchrist in collecting more fishes in the bay.

List of sources:

Cape of Good Hope. Report of the trustees of the South African Museum, 1908, 1909.

General directory of South Africa, 1903, 1908, 1911, 1916.

My Heritage. Arthur William Bayly. Retrieved on 31 March 2023 from https://www.myheritage.com/names/arthur_bayly

National Archives, Pretoria (TAB), Source MHG, Vol. 0, Ref.26941, death notice, last will and testament, Arthur William Bayly.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Arthur William Bayly / A.W. Bayly.

Rosenthal, E. Southern African dictionary of national biography. London: F. Warne, 1966.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2023-03-31 09:49:30