Physical Address
No. 70 Derry House, Ground Floor, Corner 6th Avenue And Fife Street
Hume Park
Bulawayo
About Us
John Bryce, son of Bryce and Anne Hendrie was born on the 2nd of June 1872. He attended school at Ewart Institute in Newton Stewart, Dumfrieshire, Scotland. Beginning in 1888, John began his legal apprenticeship under a Mr. Kelly in Newton Stewart, and he would be so, engaged for the next five years.
After his apprenticeship, he joined Bannatyne, Kirkwood, France & Co. in Glasgow where he remained for seven years. Sometime in the early 1900s, John moved to Bulawayo and together with one E.G Russell, was by 1907, a partner in the firm Russell & Hendrie. Some years later, John would merge his practice with Wallace Stuttaford and the firm would be known as Bryce Hendrie and Stuttaford.
John Bryce died at his home in Bulawayo on the 25th of July 1946, at the age of 75. Apart from the practice of law, John was remembered for his involvement with the Bulawayo Club, Golf Society and the military.
John’s son, Francis (a.k.a. Frank) Bryce Hendrie, was born in Glasgow Scotland on the 23rd of December 1915 to John and his wife, Frances Maude Edington. Francis was educated at Dulwich College and Wadham College, Oxford, where he read law. By 1940, Francis had been admitted to practice law as a legal practitioner, conveyancer and notary public in the then Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).
After being an articled clerk with another leading Bulawayo firm, Francis joined his father John in the firm Bryce Hendrie and Stuttaford in 1945.
Meanwhile, the Calderwood history of the firm is as follows:-
Brian Lawton Calderwood was born in 1906 to Wilfred Calderwood, who would later become the Auditor General of South Africa. He grew up in Pretoria, South Africa and in the early 1930s started a law firm in Bulawayo under his name.
After WWII, Brian was joined at the firm by his younger brother Alistair Lawton Calderwood, and the firm may have been known at this time as Calderwood & Calderwood.
On 1 May 1958, or sometime thereabout, Francis Bryce Hendrie merged his practice with Calderwood & Calderwood and the firm became known as Calderwood, Bryce Hendrie, Smith & Abercrombie. The other partners at the time were Graeme Hornby Smith and Ralph Abercrombie. (It is not clear when exactly Graeme and Ralph joined the firm, but records indicate that they were named partners as early as 1968.)
Records show that the firm has been housed at:
• Albany House, 9th Avenue/ Main Street (now J.M.N Nkomo Street), Bulawayo
• Barclays Bank Buildings, (now First Capital Buildings) 8th Avenue/ Main Street, Bulawayo
• CABS Building, Selborne Avenue (now L. Takawira Avenue)/Abercorn Street (now J. Moyo Street), Bulawayo, and
• Derry House, 6th Avenue/Fife Street, Bulawayo (present location)
It is thought that with time, the name was shortened to Calderwood, Bryce Hendrie & Partners after the realisation that the name would be quite a mouthful if all the partners were named.
Through its partners over the years, the firm has developed entrenched roots in the leadership of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo Golf Club, Bulawayo Country Club, Zimbabwe Academy of Music, and the arts field in Bulawayo.
The firm has groomed many a great legal mind in Zimbabwe and has served clients who comprise leading banks, mining, manufacturing and engineering companies, schools, and many prominent families.
The firm’s areas of practice today include Banking and Finance, Bankruptcy and Insolvency, Corporate Rescue, Liquidations and Restructuring, Bank Foreclosures, Corporate and Commercial, Debt Collection, Employment and Labour, Human Rights, Investment, Litigation, Mergers and Acquisitions, Mining, Real Estate, Conveyancing, Tax and Trusts and Estates.
Special thanks to: Roy Lander, Ian Hornby Smith, Andrew Calderwood and the Calderwood family, Alan Hendrie and the Bryce Hendrie family, and everyone who helped in the compilation of the history of the firm.