Category Archives: Military

Honoring Our Fallen Hunters

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During this Memorial Day weekend I am researching our Hunters in Uniform.

JOHN MAURICE HUNTER JOHN MAURICE HUNTER, son of the Rev. Dr. John Hunter, was born in 1885. He was educated at the Kelvinside Academy, Glasgow, and at University College School, London, and came up to Balliol as a commoner in 1904. He obtained a Second Class in Modern History in 1908, played in the Tennis Six, and was Secretary and Vice-President of the Arnold Society. After taking his degree he took a post in a publishing house and did a good deal of journalistic work. In 1912 he was appointed to a Junior Examinership at the Board of Education which he held until the end of 1914, when he took a commission in the Wiltshire Regiment. He went to France in the autumn of 1915 and was made Bombing Officer of his battalion. He was killed near La Boiselle in the second day of the Somme battle in a difficult and dangerous task for which he had volunteered. Hunter was a man of wide interests, a keen athlete—a great climber and a good lawn-tennis player—with a strong interest in social problems and a considerable literary ability which was beginning to find expression in play writing. There was much more in him than came out in his academic record, as he developed late. His work after he left College showed promise that he had a career of great interest and usefulness in front of him.In the war he showed exceptional gallantry and initiative. His commanding officer wrote of him as ” one of the bravest men I have ever met.”

Military – Roll of Honour

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WILLIAM BOYLE HUNTER No. 16539, 3rd s. of James Hunter, of 30. HOlburn Street, Aberdeen. Engineer, by his wife, Margaret, dau. of Robert Burr, of Tarves, co. Aberdeen; and nephew of the Rev. Dr. John Hunter, of Glasgow; b. Aberdeen, 18 Jan. 1888; educ. Ashley Road Public School, and Central Higher Grade School, Aberdeen: was employed in an Insurance Office in Bristol: enlisted in Jan. 1915; served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders; was wounded in the operations at Contalmaison and High Wood 23 July. 1916, and died in No. 12 General Hospital, Rouen, 1 Aug. following. Buried in St. Severs Cemetery there. His Commanding Officer wrote: “I have very great pleasure in Informing you that your son. Sergt. W.B. Hunter, has been awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty on the early morning of 23 July, 1916, He was one of my best N.C.O.’s, and he is a very great loss to there regiment,” and a comrade: “He was a brave and gallant soldier, a true friend and companion, and he died like a hero for the sake of the country he loved. His men loved him and would follow him anywhere, and his officer (now killed) Medal for gallant and distinguished service in the field; unmarried.

Pvt. Hugh Hunter

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HUGH HUNTER 3rd surviving s. of the late Robert, Hunter, Engineer and Manager, Chester Gas Works, Member of the Society of Engineers, by his wife, Ann Martha (16, Durand Gardens, S.W.), yst. dau. of the late Henry Carne ; b. Whitefriars, Chester, 21 June, 1892; educ. Christ’s Hospital, Horsham, Sussex, where he was a L.-Corpl. in the Cadet Corps, and on leaving entered the employ of a firm of Motor Engineers, afterwards Patent Agents in London ; volunteered after the outbreak of war, joined the 4th Seaforths in Sept. 1914, and after two months’ training at Bedford, went to the Front with them in Nov. He was shot through the head while acting as observer to his Capt. in the advance on Neuve Chapelle, in the early morning of 11 March, 1915, and died before reaching the dressing station ; unmarried. He was buried with several comrades in the garden of a house at Neuve Chapelle (Edgeware Road), s.5.d.3.5. Letters from his Commanding Officer and the Chaplain testify of his being most popular with his comrades and a good soldier.

Military – Roll Of Honour

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THOMAS VICARS HUNTER yr. s. of Henry Charles Vicara Hunter, of Kilbourne Hall, co. Derby, and Abermarlais Park, Llangadock, co. Carmarthen, by his wife, the Hon. Florence Edith Louise, dau. of the 12th Baron Dormer ; b. London, April, 1897; educ. Ladycross Seaford, and Eton, which he left on the outbreak of war, at the age of 17, with a nomination for Sandhurst; gazetted 2nd Lieut, in Dec. 1914 ; promoted Lieut., and Capt. in Dec. 1917 ; soon after receiving his commission he broke his leg badly in a motor-bicycle accident, which, blood poisoning setting in, necessitated amputation above the knee, July, 1915 ; on recovery after a long illness, he was given work at the War Office ; in Oct. 1916, he was passed fit for general home service, and rejoined his regiment; he subsequently took a draft of men out to France, but finding that the loss of his leg greatly handicapped him for infantry work, and seeing no chance of getting out to the front, he joined the Royal Flying corps in Feb. 1917 ; obtained his Wings in May, and his Pilot’s certificate; served with the Expeditionary Force, in France and Flanders from the following June, being posted to a fighting squadron, and flying a scout machine; was gazetted Flight Commander in Sept. of the same year; took part in many air tights destroying several enemy machines and sending down others out of control ¦ proceeded with his squadron to Italy in Nov., and was killed In action 5 Dee 1917, and buried at Camazzole, 10 miles from Citadella. One Squadron Commander wrote : ” He was absolutely splendid throughout his time with me, arid I tried hard to obtain for him recognition of his bravery,” and another: He was a tine pilot, and his Flight would have followed him anywhere Your son was a splendid officer, and enormously popular. I never knew anyone keener or more ‘ all out’ than he was. He had got his Flight flying in closer formation than any Might in existence, and we were very proud of it in the squadron.” The Roman Catholic Chaplain attached to British Headquarters who officiated at the funeral, which was arranged by the French in whose lines he fell, wrote : ” I think the French Authorities and the French soldiers generally when they realized that this brave flying officer had only one leg thought they could not do enough to show their admiration, and so the very elaborate public funeral they organized and carried out. Capt. Hunter’s exceptional bravery seems to have appealed to the mind of the French soldiers in a very particular way, for no one knows better than the French soldier what sacrifice is.”