Reginald Seager Hunt was born in London on the 24th Feb 1874. He was the third son of Walter Freeman Hunt and his wife Alice (née Mortimore).
After school he joined the Norfolk Regiment and then moved on to the King’s Hussars with whom he fought in the 2nd Boer War in South Africa.
The Hussars were posted to India after the Boer War and Reggie was promoted to Major. There, he swapped places with a Major in the King’s Dragoon Guards. He stayed with that regiment for the rest of his military career even though he was attached to other regiments temporarily.
Reginald Seager Hunt was born in London on the 24th Feb 1874. He was the third son of Walter Freeman Hunt and his wife Alice (née Mortimore).
At age 6, in 1880, he moved with his family to Sedgeford Hall, in Sedgeford, Norfolk having leased the hall from the Rolfe family of nearby Heacham.
For 1 year he was taught by a governess, Miss Lewis who he hated with a passion that lasted until his later years. At age 7 he was sent to Matthew Buckland’s school in Laleham in Surrey (but formerly in Middlesex). In 1888 he started at Haileybury School in Hertfordshire. His brother, Donald, joined him a year later and he made friends with Thomas Woods Purdy. Thomas later married their sister, Nona.
After Haileybury, Reggie joined the 3rd Battalion Norfolk Regiment as a Lieutenant in 1893. However, he had not passed any army entrance exams and so was sent to a crammer in Farnham along with several members of nobility who also would not have passed Sandhurst exams.
In 1897, Reggie moved to the 3rd Hussars. Due to still being in Riding School, he missed out on being at the Battle of Omdurman on 2nd September 1898 where the 21st Lancers (to whom the 3rd Hussars had been sent as reinforcements) charged a Sudanese Army under the Mahdi (Muhammad Ahmad).
He was promoted to Captain in the 3rd Hussars in 1901.
Between December 1901 and October 1902, the 3rd Hussars were deployed to South Africa as part of the 2nd Boer War. During this time Reggie took the opportunity to visit his brother, Donald, in Schoonoord. After their posting to South Africa, the 3rd Hussars returned to India at Sialkot.
He was promoted to Major in the 3rd Hussars in 1910.
In 1911, Reggie switched places with Major Herbert Clinch of the 1st (King’s) Dragoon Guards. He stayed as an officer of the King’s Dragoon Guards for the rest of his military service even though he was attached to, and commanded, several battalions of other regiments.
Reggie’s squadron was personal escort to King George V and Queen Mary at the Delhi Durbar on 12 December 1911 to commemorate the coronation in Britain on 2nd June 1911. Since he was just feet from their majesties during the ceremony, he says in his memoirs that he was able to witness “little Sir Pertab Singh before all those countless thousands lift the Maharajah of Baroda off the Royal Dais with Oh! Such a mighty well placed kick behind after Baroda had insulted the King & Queen. Then it fell to my duty to put him in his carriage & escort him a prisoner to his own camp”. The incident occurred during the presentations from the native princes when the Maharajah had not worn full jewellery, given just a perfunctory bow to and then turned his back on their majesties. The action was taken as a display of dissent to the British rule in India and was reported in all the newspapers. The Maharajah wrote a letter of apology.
In 1913, Reggie had a short interlude to establish and command the Dragoon Guards’ cavalry depot in Dunbar before rejoining the rest of the regiment in Lucknow just after the war was declared.
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