PART ONEHello
ODK History Lovers
This story is a
SUPPLEMENT to the
Scott Bonnar Bloor Court Story.
The story as to how the
Scott Bonnar Company began making lawnmowers is one that has been often told.
The primary source (of the story) was none other than
Malcolm Bonnar (Scott's brother) who said this
in his 1971
Memoir:-
The problem with this story is that it is, in typical Malcolm Cornelius Bonnar fashion,
equivocal. It is,
no doubt, true; but it conceals or remains quiet on an even bigger truth.
The
Tom Harrison Story (according to Malcolm) suggests that if it wasn't for that random or accidental
request by Harrison, Scott Bonnar would not have become involved with lawnmowers.
I reject that view.
In original research, I argued in the
Bloor Court Story that Mr. Scott Bonnar was heavily involved in
the buying, repairing and selling of lawnmowers in
1919 at his second premises (after Young Street) at
Bloor Court, off
Currie Street.
In other words, that apparent chance meeting - between Harrison and the Bonnar brothers - was not
chance at all. In this post I argue that Tom Harrison
must have known about Scott Bonnar's lawnmower
business because of a very cogent and persuasive fact: Tom Harrison was a
business neighbour of Scott
Bonnar from
mid-1917 to the end of
1919.
TO BE CONTINUED ...