World War 1 Timeline sources

Helen Violet Hunt

Born October 5^th, 1887 at Sedgeford Hall. When the family moved to Folkestone, Helen attended Effingham School there.

She later travelled in Italy and Germany with Miss Buckhurst, her governess. Returning to Heighington, Lincolnshire, she ran a scout group and during the First World War she was a driver with the Royal Flying Corps.

Helen married Alfred Churchill Matthew of Colombo in 1921 and spent time in Ceylon. The couple moved back to Norfolk and then settled in Hampshire where they brought up three children. She died on April 5^th, 1957 in Winchester.

Francis Whittaker Hunt

Born August 4^th 1885 at Sedgeford Hall. It was clear from a young age that Frank would go into the church and he spent a spell as a schoolmaster in order to finance his theological studies at Oriel College, Oxford.

Frank was ordained in 1911 and worked as a curate in Brighton before joining the staff of Bishop’s College, Cheshunt. His next post was as curate at St. George’s Toddington between 1921 and 1924. In 1926 he was appointed Rector of Toddington, Bedfordshire where he remained till his death.

Frank was the keeper of his mother’s photograph collection. He died on May 24^th, 1951.

Nona Isabel Hunt

Born March 17^th, 1884 at Sedgeford Hall. Nona was educated at home with her sisters.

In 1908 she married Thomas Woods Purdy, a close friend of her brothers from their Haileybury days. They spent all their married lives in Aylsham and had four children.

She was known as an excellent horsewoman and correspondence from her youth reveals a vivacious personality.

She died on July 19^th, 1958 in Aylsham.

Gertrude Maud Hunt

Born January 31^st 1882 at Sedgeford Hall. She was educated at home with her younger sisters and lived in the various family homes after the Hunts moved from Norfolk.

During the First World War she travelled to her job in a metalwork factory by motorcycle. She returned to Felmingham, Norfolk with her mother and after her death moved to a bungalow in Aylsham.

Gertie had an acute social conscience and supported many charities. She took on her mother’s role as family recorder in later diaries and photograph albums.

Gertie died on February 27^th, 1977 in Aylsham.

Gerald Owen Hunt

Born August 21^st, 1880 at Sedgeford Hall. He attended Haileybury and was with the London and Westminster Bank before taking an administrative post in the tea and rubber plantations of Ceylon.

During the Great War he served at Gallipoli and was said to have been the last soldier evacuated in the withdrawal. He married Helen Bullock in 1914 and they had two sons.

Gerald remained a regular visitor to Norfolk.

He died in Woking on July 9^th, 1939.

Ella Mary Alice Hunt

Born January 28^th, 1877 in Kensington. On 22^nd of June the same year the entry in Alice’s birthday book records “Our baby died (my little girl)”

John Foster Hunt

Born 30^th December, 1878, in Kensington. John was awarded scholarships at Haileybury before going on to specialise in chemistry.

Much of his work was concerned with researching tanning methods. His work led to a life overseas, in Zupanje, Hungary for ten years with the Oak Extract Company Ltd., a brief spell in Borneo and then a long association with Smyrna, now in Turkey.

During the Kemalist attack and sack of Smyrna on September 9^th, 1922, he was said to have evacuated the Greek element of his factory before departing under the cover of darkness in a boat with muffled oars.

He retired to Izmir where he died on April 8^th, 1931.

Donald Rolfe Hunt

Born May 2^nd, 1875 in Kensington. At Haileybury he was a keen sportsman and notable long-distance runner. Donald spent a few months as a school-master before joining the Cape Mounted Rifles in 1896.

He served in the Boer War with the 3^rd Norfolk Regiment where he was mentioned in Kitchener’s despatches and then with the Native Administration Department in Sekukuniland, including a period as Inspector of Mines.

He joined the Transvaal Scottish Regiment at the start of the Great War and took part in the German South West Africa campaign. When the South African government was requested to send a brigade for action at the Western Front, he joined the 4th Battalion (South African Scottish) of the South African Infantry Brigade and served with them from 1915 to 1918. The South African Infantry Brigade’s first action was the famous Battle of Delville Wood on the Somme. Subsequently the brigade served at Arras and Ypres. In 1917 he married Grizel Scott. In early 1918, Donald joined the British Military Mission to the Caucasus (known as Dunsterforce).

After the war, he and Grizel eventually set up home near Pietermaritzburg, South Africa where they brought up three daughters.

He died on May 3^rd, 1949.

Reginald Seager Hunt

Born February 14^th, 1874 in Kensington. He attended Haileybury School and went on to a long and distinguished career in the army.

Reggie served with several regiments :-

• February 1883 to May 1897, 3^rd Battalion Norfolk Regiment as 2^nd Lt. and Lt.
• May 1897 to June 1911, 3^rd King’s Own Hussars as 2nd Lt., Lt., Capt. and Major
• June 1911 to September 1921, 1^st King’s Dragoon Guards as Major
• June 1916 to October 1916, attached to 1/4^th Seaforth Highlanders as 2^nd in command
• October 1916 to March 1918, attached to 8^th King’s Own (Royal Lancaster) Regiment as temporary Lt. Col. in command
• March 1918, reverted to rank of Major in the 1^st King’s Dragoon Guards
• At retirement in September 1921, granted rank of Lt.Col. in the 1^st King’s Dragoon Guards

During his time with the 3^rd Hussars, he fought in the Boer War (where family legend has it that he was laid out for dead and was saved only by waggling a finger).

The 1^st King’s Dragoon Guards were stationed in Lucknow when the Great War broke out and they travelled to the Western Front via Marseille in late 1914. They were involved in action at Festubert in May 1915. In June 1916, Reggie was attached for a short period to the 1^st/4^th Seaforth Highlanders as 2^nd in command and fought at High Wood on the Somme. Later in that year he was promoted to temporary Lt.Col. and given his own command of the 8^th Battalion of the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment which he held until March of 1918 serving with them at the Battle of Arras and the 3^rd Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele). After a spell training the Iraqi army in the U.K., Reggie was requested to join the Middlesex Yeomanry with the Desert Mounted Corps and fought up through Palestine ending up at the Capture of Damascus.

Reggie was mentioned in dispatches twice and was awarded the D.S.O. for his actions during the war. His poignant account of life in the trenches survives. At retirement in 1925, he was promoted to the full rank of Lt.Col. of the 1^st King’s Dragoon Guards. Reggie returned to Felmingham and spent his later life in Walcott, Norfolk where he died on April 1^st, 1942.

Gilbert Mortimore Hunt

Born July 25^th, 1872 in Kensington. Gilbert attended Eton and spent time in New Zealand before going up to Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

After a period in the 4^th Sherwood Foresters rising to the rank of Captain, he joined the colonial administrative staff of British Central Africa in 1897.

Gilbert died of blackwater fever a year later and was buried in front of Fort Lister, Mlanje.

Walter Ernest Hunt

Born July 14^th, 1871 in Kensington. He attended Rev. Buckland’s preparatory school at Laleham near Sunbury before going on to Eton. Here he won many prizes and rowed for his house.

Ernest died of influenza at 7 Cromwell Rd., London, the home of his uncle Sir Frederick Seager Hunt M.P., in 1889.

Alice Hunt

Born February 4^th, 1844 at Champion Hill, Camberwell, the eighth child of William Mortimore and Harriet Foster.

Alice and Walter spent the first 10 years of their married life in London and then moved to Sedgeford in 1880.

Following her husband’s death, Alice and and the younger children returned briefly to Surrey before moving to Norfolk at Lovell’s Hall, Terrington St. Clements. A spell in Heighington, Lincolnshire followed. Eventually Alice and Gertie settled in Felmingham, presumably to be near Nona and her young family in Aylsham.

Alice’s interest in photography waned in her later years, although she continued to be an avid recorder of her family’s life and achievements. She died in 1926.

Walter Freeman Hunt

Born May 31^st, 1845 in Westminster, the fifth child of James Edward Hunt and Eliza Seager. The family had lived in India and his mother died during the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

Walter was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and became a barrister. On July 14^th, July 1870 he married Alice Mortimore at Holy Trinity, Paddington.

During the years which the family lived in Sedgeford he was a Justice of the Peace for the county of Norfolk. He was also active in local church and charity ventures. Walter appears to have suffered declining health after the family moved to Surrey and spent the last few months of his life in Folkestone where he died in 1903.