John Thomas Dent Gunn

John Gunn and his family lived in Tauranga for several years in the 1920s when he leased the Bellevue Hotel in Wharf Street.

John Thomas Dent Gunn was one of the twelve children of Rose Gunn a Scottish emigrant whose first wife was Johan Sutherland. She was the mother of John.  Rose Gunn arrived from Latheron in Caithness, Scotland after a short stay in Australia. He travelled on the Christian Mc Ausland  which landed in Dunedin. John was born in Lawrence, Otago where his father was a carter and later owned a coal mine.

He served an apprenticeship as a coachbuilder in Dunedin and later moved to Wellington where he married Matilda Ludmila Lnenicka whose family later changed their name to Lucinsky.  Although born in New Zealand herself, Matilda's parents emigrated from Bohemia which at that time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Today Bohemia is part of the Czech Republic. She grew up in the Manawatū area.

John and Matilda began their married life in Marton where their two daughters were born. The family later moved to Raetihi where John continued to follow his trade building coaches and gigs. Two sons were born in Raetihi.  The Gunn family were living there when the famous Raetihi Bush Fire occurred and all of the family huddled in a culvert in a nearby creek as the fire encompassed their street.  When it died down and the family climbed out they found that their house was the only undamaged house standing in their street.

For some reason the family moved to Tauranga where John took up the lease of the Bellevue Hotel.  It was a private (unlicensed) hotel that had been built by James Bodell, an early Mayor of Tauranga who called it his Temperance Hotel when he managed it himself.  The hotel was later known as the Domain Hotel.  It was a two story timber building with a balcony at the front and stables at the back.  By this time the Gunn's eldest daughter Alectina had left school and she commenced work at Hartley's Drapery on The Strand.  The second daughter attended the District High School until her parents decided they needed her to help in the hotel. She was very unhappy having to leave school and her disappointment clouded her opinion of Tauranga for the rest of her life.  She helped with the cooking and cleaning as well as feeding the numerous cats who were needed to keep down the mouse population in the stables. Her two brothers continued their education at the District High School with the elder boy Athol playing rugby in the First XV and in the First Cricket Eleven.  The younger boy, Halsey was still at school when the family moved to Hamilton and he continued his education there and at the Auckland University where he graduated as an Electrical Engineer.

John Gunn worked once again as a coachbuilder in Hamilton, by now for a manufacturer of more modern vehicles until he retired.  He then  took up another position as a handyman at the Ruakura Animal Research Centre.  In retirement he had time to spend with his grandchildren and his grandson fondly remembers being doubled on Granddad's bike to go eeling and rabbiting.

He died at his home in Vialou Street, Hamilton and is buried alongside his wife in the Hamilton East cemetery.