Profile

HUNT, Albert August
(Service number 7/68)

1st Contingent 8th S.C.M.R. to leave Waimate for the 1914-1918 War — Pictured are:
Back: Rainey, G; Frost, R; Julian, W; Cochrane, John; Tennant, John; Cochrane, James; Nichol N; Cameron, C; Robins; Rickman, E A; ?
3rd R: McKenzie, J (alexander John); Duggan, M; Tobin ,J; Tavendale, W; Campbell, J; Gynes; Hodgson, J; McKenzie, R S (Percy?); Samuels, H [actually Henry Samuel Miniss]; Copland; Fitzharris, P; Gill, J
2nd R: Fraser; Whitta, J H; Carr, J; Manchester, A R; Wain, P J; Finlay, John; Bailey, G C; Sloan, P; Bell, N; Menzies, W; Spencer, E; Ryan, E
Front: McGrath, W; Keane, T; Wall, T; Hunt; ?; Hogan, H (Courtesy of Waimate Museum & Archives, P2183 )

Albert & Elizabeth Hunt — The couple were married on 21 June 1917 at First Church, Dunedin, following Albert's discharge from military service. (Courtesy of S Crystella )

Albert Hunt - Medals and Princess Mary Christmas gift box — The two medals are a British War Medal and a Victory Medals with ribbons, accompanied by the gift box at bottom.. (Courtesy of S Crystella )

Albert Hunt - medals, badges, and buttons — Along with the medals are 8th (SC) Mounted Rifles badges, RSA badges, plus British War Medal and Victory Medals and ribbons. (Courtesy of S Crystella )

Albert and Elizabeth Hunt, pictured outside their home in Rotorua in the 1960s — (Courtesy of S Crystella )

Albert Hunt pictured in his Ford Mercury in the 1960s — (Courtesy of S Crystella )

Egyptian necklace — This necklace, brought home as a souvenir from World War One, continues (in 2020) to be treasured by a grandchild of Albert Hunt. (Courtesy of S Crystella )

Aliases
First Rank	Trooper	Last Rank

Birth

Date	12/10/1892	Place of Birth	Bunnythorpe, Palmerston North

Enlistment Information

Date		Age	21
Address at Enlistment	High Street, Waimate, New Zealan
Occupation	Strawberry grower
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	Robert Hunt, care of A. Evans, South Wellington, New Zealand
Religion	Methodist
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	Main Body
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	Canterbury Mounted Rifles
Date	16 October 1914
Transport	HMNZT 4 Tahiti or HMNZT 1 Athenic
Embarked From	Lyttelton, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand	Destination	Suez, Egypt

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns	Egyptian (1914-1915); Balkan, Gallipoli (1915)
Service Medals	1914-1915 Star; British War Medal; Victory Medal; Gallipoli Lapel Badge; Gallipoli Medallion (1967)
Military Awards

Award Circumstances and Date

No information

Prisoner of War Information

Date of Capture
Where Captured and by Whom
Actions Prior to Capture
PoW Serial Number
PoW Camps
Days Interned
Liberation Date

Discharge

Date	3rd August 1916	Reason	No longer phsyically fit for war service

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date	2 November 1970	Age	78 years
Place of Death	Rotorua
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery	Cremated Rotorua
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Albert August Hunt was born on 12 October 1892 at Bunnythorpe, Palmerston North. He was one of five children of Thomas and Anna Marie Augusta (née Timm or Thim, from Prussia) Hunt. By the time of his enlistment in October 1914 Albert had moved with his family to Waimate, where he was a strawberry grower. After serving in the Gallipoli and Egyptian theatre in 1914 and 1915 he was discharged as no longer physically fit in August 1916. After his return to New Zealand Albert married Elizabeth (Bessie) Laidlaw Kelly of Dunedin on 21 June 1917 at First Church, Dunedin. The couple moved to Ohura in the North Island where they farmed and had four children. They later moved to Mt Albert, Auckland, before retiring to Lynmore, Rotorua. Albert died as a result of a stroke in Rotorua Hospital on 2 November 1970, aged 78 years old. The couple's granddaughter recalled trout fishing and gardening in a huge section with fruit-filled trees, veges and chooks that provided eggs. Despite being discharged as no longer fit for service, she recalled that Albert continued running in later life, every day until around the time of the death of his wife. He was a man who had to have everything immaculate - shoes polished, hat on, before he would go out, sometimes taking long drives in his Ford Mercury.

Albert's brother, Robert Herman Walter Thomas Hunt, who was probably Albert's next-of-kin on enlistment, himself was killed in action in 1918 at the Somme, France.

Sources

Military personnel file (8 July 2015); Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [23 January 2017]; Otago Daily Times, 7 August 1917 (Papers Past) [06 June 2016]; Rotorua cremation records (South Canterbury Branch NZSG cemetery records) [25 January 2017]; Web submissions by S Crystella, 26 & 28 April 2020; "A Postcard from home" featuring a postcard sent to AA Hunt, circa 1915, at http://www.magnaquies.com/a_postcard_from_home.html [29 April 2020]

External Links

Researched and Written by

Saray Sedeno

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.

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