In Benoni, the bread business started more or less with the arrival of the first pioneers, with William Hugh Bilsland Garvie from Scotland being one of them.

He served in the 1st Battalion, Railway Pioneer Regiment, during the Anglo-Boer War and, after the war, worked for his father in their Kensington Bakery.

Garvie married Rosland Quilliam and made their home in Benoni.

Initially, he took over a bakery in Wilstead Street from Mr Johnson.

There, he baked the first bread for sale when he started his trade in 1905.

Nine months later, he sold this to a Mr Philipson and purchased a property on the corner of Swan Street and Ampthill Avenue, where he built a house and a bakery.

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Garview installed up-to-date machinery, a kitchen and the latest ovens for baking.

These buildings were designed by the architect Mr Henderson and contractors, Messrs Milne & Mackenzie.

The name “Garvie” was written in marble on the front step, and the whole of the store beneath the windows consisted of green tiles with a massive veranda that stretched around Swan Street and Ampthill Avenue. Behind this was the confectionery baking room.

Looking at the fine range of buildings and machinery in Garvie’s factory, who would guess his comparatively small beginnings.

But it was Garvie’s energy, business ability and first-class bread that made him famous for ‘home-made’ bread on the East Rand.

In 1916, he sold the machinery and goodwill to a fellow baker and leased the property to Mr Rae William before joining Geduld Mines as a drill sharpener for a few years.

He did, however, return to his profession and took over the business again in 1918.

In 1922, he added another shop and bought the adjoining property in June 1930.
Garvie also had many other interests in Benoni, one being the owner of the first electric bioscope called

The Grand and a skating rink.

When William Garvie passed away in Benoni on August 27, 1930, the business was managed by his two sons, William Joseph and Joseph Henry Garvie, on behalf of their mother, Rosland Garvie.

The history of the firm can be summed up in two words – “steady progress”.

At various periods, other machinery and buildings were added, and the brothers hoped to extend the bakery to the adjoining stand within a few months.

They started with horse-drawn carts for deliveries but when faster delivery became essential, motorised vans were gradually introduced.

The major of the firm’s trade was to the mines, which included Brakpan and Springs.

Bread was an essential commodity and, therefore, produced under the cleanest and most hygienic conditions.

This had always been the aim of Garvie’s, and judging from their shop and bake house, they had succeeded in reaching the highest standard in this respect.

(Source: Colin Garvie, great grandson/snippets from BCT dated circa 1931/typed and story by Glynis Cox Millett-Clay, January 12, 2016, updated March 6, 2026).

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