Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity to the Mid-Twentieth Century 2nd Edition
by Robert Aldrich and Garry Wotherspoon
Partner William Porter
Hugh Lynar (1804-1873), a Northern Unitarian, was the publisher and editor for the "Morning Register", a Dublin daily paper before immigrating to the Cape of Good Hope. "He was a man of integrity and capacity, who probably found the task of conducting a journal essentially Catholic rendered tolerable by the opportunity it afforded of supporting the policy of the Mulgrave Administration. Lord Mulgrave, Lord Morpeth, and Thomas Drummond were at the Castle, and were ruling the country in a way which an enlightened Whig like Lynar could unreservedly applaud."
He was the lifelong companion of William Porter, a friend since childhood, and accompanied him to Cape Colony. "It was a common sight to see them on the way to the station, Porter striding ahead with Lynar a long way behind carrying the lunch basket." Porter insisted (against some opposition) that Lynar be appointed as his clerk. The two men worked together (not only in the same office but on opposite ends of the same desk), lived together and were rarely separated during the rest of their life together at the Cape.
At the time of Lynar's death in 1873, the Cape Argus described Porter and Lynar's friendship as "all but unprecedented in the annals of friendship." Lynar left a bequest of £400 to the South African Libraries, which was spent on standard works and on books relating to South Africa.. Porter was so grieved at Lynar's death that he left the Cape Colony permanently three weeks later, eventually joining his brother, the Rev. John Scott Porter, at Lennoxvale, Belfast. He died in Ireland in his 75th year. He bequeathed £20.000 for the establishment of a reformatory for boys at the Cape. He declared that Lynar, who for many years had been clerk of the peace at Cape Town and frequently acted as resident magistrate, had often lamented the lack of such an institution.
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Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity to the Mid-Twentieth Century 2nd Edition by Robert Aldrich and Garry Wotherspoon |
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