HART, Bert Lewis (Louis)
Born 15 Jan 1886; died 21 November 1918; buried 22 November 1918, aged 32
Bert Hart’s Whanganui business, following the lead set by his wealthy Auckland father, went on to support people in beds throughout the country.
The bedding manufacturing business, set up in 1909 and using some of the most modern machinery in the country, expanded to premises in Wellington and Christchurch. It continued into the 1950s, by which time it was making beds using Vono’s well-known inner-spring technology.
However, Bert did not live to see the ultimate success of his business. His life was cut short at the height of the influenza epidemic in November 1918 when he died in Wellington, aged 32.
Bert was born on 16 January 1886 in Hobson Street, Auckland, the son of Woolf and Rachel Hart. He was their third child, with his sisters Miriam (known as Minnie) born in 1881 and Ivy born in 1882.
Minnie, his older sister, died of heart seizure while waiting for a performance of the pantomime ‘Cinderella’ at His Majesty’s Theatre, Auckland on 18 May 1908, aged 27. Ivy, his second sister, married Joseph HYMAN of Newcastle-on-Tyne in October 1909. A full account of the Auckland wedding was given in ‘The Observer’, including the gifts of a Queen Anne villa by the bride’s father and cheques by her mother and her brother, Bert(i). The family clearly had means.
In March 1909, Bert set up in business at 5 Wicksteed Place, Whanganui as a wire mattress and bedding manufacturer. The ‘Wanganui Chronicle’ reported that he had some 15 years practical experience in manufacturing of wire-woven mattresses, door mats and all kinds of kapok and flax bedding and had installed the most up-to-date machinery in the country (ii). The business seems to have been successful, with regular advertisements for skilled staff in local Whanganui and more distant newspapers including Auckland. A 1918 street directory shows the business at 5 Wicksteed Place.
When he was 23, Bert married Eva COGAN on 22 June 1909. Presumably they had met in Auckland. The same age as Bert, Eva had been brought up in Devonport where her father had been in business as a blacksmith for many years. Two years after their marriage, Eva and Bert had a daughter, Zena, on 2 May 1911, born in Whanganui (iii).
In the same month, the ‘Chronicle’ reported that Bert had installed a telephone in the family residence in Durietown, some two years after one had gone into the business premises at Wicksteed Place.
By December 1912 the business had become the wholesale mattress manufacturer B L Hart and Co. Two years later, Bert’s father Woolf, 72, died in Auckland (iv).
By 1915, Bert had opened a branch of the business in Tory Street, Wellington. For a time, the family lived at the Albert Hotel, at the corner of Boulcott and Willis streets, but in mid-1918 they moved to 18 Roxburgh Street, Mt Victoria, Wellington.
Later that year, after nine days of illness, Bert died on 21 November of septic pneumonia at the St John’s temporary hospital, aged 32. He was interred in the Jewish section of Karori Cemetery on Friday 22 November 1918 in plot 134A.
The ‘Dominion’ reported his death on 22 November 1918 and said that his widow also had influenza. However, Eva recovered. By June 1919 she had moved from Roxburgh Street and was living at the Hotel Windsor, perhaps as she was becoming more fully involved in overseeing the business.
This continued with a new private company being set up, B.L. Hart and Co. Ltd, the capital being owned by Eva Hart and Bertram Nye STAFF, a furniture salesman.
In 1922 the company was advertising that its mill wool mattresses were ‘stocked by leading Furnishers’. By then, the business seems to have been consolidated on the site at 92 Tory Street, because there were no street directory advertisements for Whanganui after 1918. In 1924 the company was advertising premises in Christchurch as well as Wellington.
The Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa, has a 1950s pamphlet on iconic Vono furniture (advertising sleek lines, mahogany frames and high-quality construction) showing that B L Hart and Co went on to use Vono’s spring technology to manufacture inner spring mattresses, chairs and daybeds under licence.
What later became of the company is unknown – the records could have been lost in a big fire at Wellington’s eight-storey Hope Gibbons Building in 1952 as there is no information on the Companies’ website or in Archives NZ. (The fire, which destroyed many of New Zealand’s irreplaceable documents and much official memory, prompted the subsequent creation of New Zealand’s National Archive.)
In 1923, Bert’s widow Eva and daughter Zena travelled to North America. Zena established herself as a skilled harpist (v), playing with the Vancouver and the Calgary symphony orchestras and undertaking concert performances in San Francisco (vi) and Philadelphia. Employment as a musician would have been intermittent, and Zena also found work as a stenographer. In 1939 she returned to New Zealand and over several months performed with the newly formed Auckland Symphony Orchestra and the Auckland Choral Society (vii). Zena eventually became naturalised as a US citizen and lived in Texas after her retirement until she died in 1988.
Eva died in 1966 she was buried in Waikumete Cemetery, Auckland.
Researched and written by Nigel Isaacs, Jenny Robertson and Max Kerr
(i) The Observer, 30 October 1909.
(ii) Given that Bert was just 23 at this time, the reference to 15 years’ experience must have taken his father’s experience into account.
(iii) Birth details taken from Texas Laredo Arrival Manifest for Zena Hart, 3 November 1942 on ss Mt Vernon, Family Search, viewed on 12 October 2018.
(iv) Rachel, Bert’s mother, lived until 1 April 1929 and was buried in Waikumete Cemetery.
(v) Zena had been a pupil of two renowned teachers for the harp, Carlos Salzado and Miss Annie Louise David.
(vi) Where she lived for a time.
(vii) Auckland Star, 21 June 1909 and 23 September 1939.
Born 15 Jan 1886; died 21 November 1918; buried 22 November 1918, aged 32
Bert Hart’s Whanganui business, following the lead set by his wealthy Auckland father, went on to support people in beds throughout the country.
The bedding manufacturing business, set up in 1909 and using some of the most modern machinery in the country, expanded to premises in Wellington and Christchurch. It continued into the 1950s, by which time it was making beds using Vono’s well-known inner-spring technology.
However, Bert did not live to see the ultimate success of his business. His life was cut short at the height of the influenza epidemic in November 1918 when he died in Wellington, aged 32.
Bert was born on 16 January 1886 in Hobson Street, Auckland, the son of Woolf and Rachel Hart. He was their third child, with his sisters Miriam (known as Minnie) born in 1881 and Ivy born in 1882.
Minnie, his older sister, died of heart seizure while waiting for a performance of the pantomime ‘Cinderella’ at His Majesty’s Theatre, Auckland on 18 May 1908, aged 27. Ivy, his second sister, married Joseph HYMAN of Newcastle-on-Tyne in October 1909. A full account of the Auckland wedding was given in ‘The Observer’, including the gifts of a Queen Anne villa by the bride’s father and cheques by her mother and her brother, Bert(i). The family clearly had means.
In March 1909, Bert set up in business at 5 Wicksteed Place, Whanganui as a wire mattress and bedding manufacturer. The ‘Wanganui Chronicle’ reported that he had some 15 years practical experience in manufacturing of wire-woven mattresses, door mats and all kinds of kapok and flax bedding and had installed the most up-to-date machinery in the country (ii). The business seems to have been successful, with regular advertisements for skilled staff in local Whanganui and more distant newspapers including Auckland. A 1918 street directory shows the business at 5 Wicksteed Place.
When he was 23, Bert married Eva COGAN on 22 June 1909. Presumably they had met in Auckland. The same age as Bert, Eva had been brought up in Devonport where her father had been in business as a blacksmith for many years. Two years after their marriage, Eva and Bert had a daughter, Zena, on 2 May 1911, born in Whanganui (iii).
In the same month, the ‘Chronicle’ reported that Bert had installed a telephone in the family residence in Durietown, some two years after one had gone into the business premises at Wicksteed Place.
By December 1912 the business had become the wholesale mattress manufacturer B L Hart and Co. Two years later, Bert’s father Woolf, 72, died in Auckland (iv).
By 1915, Bert had opened a branch of the business in Tory Street, Wellington. For a time, the family lived at the Albert Hotel, at the corner of Boulcott and Willis streets, but in mid-1918 they moved to 18 Roxburgh Street, Mt Victoria, Wellington.
Later that year, after nine days of illness, Bert died on 21 November of septic pneumonia at the St John’s temporary hospital, aged 32. He was interred in the Jewish section of Karori Cemetery on Friday 22 November 1918 in plot 134A.
The ‘Dominion’ reported his death on 22 November 1918 and said that his widow also had influenza. However, Eva recovered. By June 1919 she had moved from Roxburgh Street and was living at the Hotel Windsor, perhaps as she was becoming more fully involved in overseeing the business.
This continued with a new private company being set up, B.L. Hart and Co. Ltd, the capital being owned by Eva Hart and Bertram Nye STAFF, a furniture salesman.
In 1922 the company was advertising that its mill wool mattresses were ‘stocked by leading Furnishers’. By then, the business seems to have been consolidated on the site at 92 Tory Street, because there were no street directory advertisements for Whanganui after 1918. In 1924 the company was advertising premises in Christchurch as well as Wellington.
The Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa, has a 1950s pamphlet on iconic Vono furniture (advertising sleek lines, mahogany frames and high-quality construction) showing that B L Hart and Co went on to use Vono’s spring technology to manufacture inner spring mattresses, chairs and daybeds under licence.
What later became of the company is unknown – the records could have been lost in a big fire at Wellington’s eight-storey Hope Gibbons Building in 1952 as there is no information on the Companies’ website or in Archives NZ. (The fire, which destroyed many of New Zealand’s irreplaceable documents and much official memory, prompted the subsequent creation of New Zealand’s National Archive.)
In 1923, Bert’s widow Eva and daughter Zena travelled to North America. Zena established herself as a skilled harpist (v), playing with the Vancouver and the Calgary symphony orchestras and undertaking concert performances in San Francisco (vi) and Philadelphia. Employment as a musician would have been intermittent, and Zena also found work as a stenographer. In 1939 she returned to New Zealand and over several months performed with the newly formed Auckland Symphony Orchestra and the Auckland Choral Society (vii). Zena eventually became naturalised as a US citizen and lived in Texas after her retirement until she died in 1988.
Eva died in 1966 she was buried in Waikumete Cemetery, Auckland.
Researched and written by Nigel Isaacs, Jenny Robertson and Max Kerr
(i) The Observer, 30 October 1909.
(ii) Given that Bert was just 23 at this time, the reference to 15 years’ experience must have taken his father’s experience into account.
(iii) Birth details taken from Texas Laredo Arrival Manifest for Zena Hart, 3 November 1942 on ss Mt Vernon, Family Search, viewed on 12 October 2018.
(iv) Rachel, Bert’s mother, lived until 1 April 1929 and was buried in Waikumete Cemetery.
(v) Zena had been a pupil of two renowned teachers for the harp, Carlos Salzado and Miss Annie Louise David.
(vi) Where she lived for a time.
(vii) Auckland Star, 21 June 1909 and 23 September 1939.