Several years ago on one of my visits to Maitland Cemetery, my eye fell on the headstone of a certain Archibald Benjamin “Bulty” Bultitude – his headstone fascinated me as not only was he known as the Lightweight Boxing Champion of England in 1876 but also a manager of Ohlsson’s Cape Breweries Limited, for many years.
Sniffing out his past was getting the better of me and I needed to find out what made a company like Ohlsson’s Breweries employ someone who had been a boxer. Did it fit with the masculinity of beer drinking and alcohol or was he just a nice guy?
Archibald was born on 7th March 1852 in Westminster, London to John Bultitude a “college servant” and his wife Matilda Wilson
In December 1875 Archibald was a member of the South London Harriers and was the holder of the “Amateur Featherweight Champion” but could not participate in the City Gymnasium Competition in London as he was listed as overweight. In April 1876 at Lillie-Bridge grounds for an annual contest and cup presented by the Marquess of Queensberry where the final bout between Robinson and Bultitude was close, the superior activity of the latter giving him no advantage which his adversary could not quite counterbalance. The finish was exciting and the discernment of the judges was severely taxed in deciding which man was the best, but after a little deliberation, it was given out that Bultitude was elected to bear the title of the champion for 1876. In 1877 we find Archibald as an “oil and colour merchant” running a business called A. Bultitude and Co. situated at 4 Minories Street, Aldgate in the City of London in partnership with William Rummell.
During that same year, he married Bessie Lumley at the Holy Trinity Church in Oxford. Both Archibald and Bessie’s father’s occupations were listed as a “college servant”, but as fate might have it, Bessie died in September 1878. Not long after that Archibald remarries and his new wife Louisa Ditton who was previously a Rummell and who was a widow, at St. Stephens in Twickenham. At the time of Archies marriage, his occupation was given as a “gentleman” as well as his father John Bultitude. The plot thickens when I discovered that Archibald’s partner in his oil and colour business William Rummell was none other than the brother of his new wife.
The life of Archibald is colourised with lies and deceit when I find a case of “Bultitude and Rummell” at the Old Bailey in London on 28th June 1880 was the cherry on the cake. They were both tried at the Old Bailey, London. Accused of bankruptcy ( unlawfully omitting to disclose to their trustee in bankruptcy goods to the value of 8,000l. and 1,330l. 8s. 8d. and other sums; also to obtaining goods on credit within four months of their bankruptcy.). The verdict was “Found guilty. Sentenced to imprisonment”. Also in the court case, Louisa’s first husband’s brother Ambrose Ditton was a witness for the defence. He was sent to Newgate prison and it was observed that he had “no tattoos”
In the South African publication “Under Lion’s Head” by Marischal Murray I discovered that during 1895 the well-known property of Botany Bay Estate now known as Bantry Bay was begun to be sold off in sections by the owner Casper Van Zyl. The house originally owned by Leisching with some ground below was bought by Bultitude then already in the employ of Ohlsson’s brewery. In the SA Law Reports dating April 1912 – it states that a certain piece of property known as “Clifton on Sea” was owned by Ohlsson’s Breweries in a property dispute. “In 1891, when Edmund Goodall sold to Ohlsson’s Breweries, Mr. Bultitude, their manager, came to live on the property at the old house known as Clifton. He lived there for about six years, and states that he always considered that the property went to the beach, but that he had no clear knowledge of the beacons, and that the ground was unfenced.”
In January 1905 a snippet of “Bulty” appears in the Saturday 7th Edition of “Sporting Life” under the heading News from South Africa. “Archie Bultitude at one period a clever amateur boxer and a member of the Otter Swimming Club, is, I hear doing well in South Africa. He is frequently found wherever good contests are in progress at Johannesburg.”
Bulty Bultitude died on 6th November 1931 aged 82 years old. He was survived by his daughter Bessie Solomon.
Sources:
www.ancestors.co.za
Old Bailey
The Old Bailey
Ancestry.com
Find My Past
Family Search
“Under Lion’s Head” by Marischal Murray
Maitland Cemetery
SA Law Reports
