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112 5th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
Wilfred Hunt was born in Sudbury in 1878. He was the son Samuel and Celia Hunt. His father was a chemist and the family lived ‘over the shop’ at 37 Market Hill. His father died in 1884 and his widowed mother moved to 28 Friars Street with her youngest daughter before moving to Felixstowe. By 1901 Wilfred was boarding at 1 Girton Terrace, Sudbury, employed as a ‘clerk at a mat factory’. He married Eleanor Frances Parmenter in 1910 and they lived at ‘River View’ in Cornard Road.
Wilfred went on to become a manager at William Armes, the matting factory in Cornard Road. He enlisted in Sudbury and was a Territorial for 15 years serving with the 5th Battalion. The Suffolk and Essex Free Press on 23 September 1914 reported Wilfred’s promotion to Colour Sergeant.
Wilfred first served in a ‘theatre of war’ in the Balkans in August 1915. The 5th Battalion embarked on the ‘Aquitania’ in Liverpool in July 1915, heading for Gallipoli in the eastern Mediterranean. The battalion landed at Suvla Bay in early August and saw action against the Turks, and saw action against the Turks, advancing through heavy enemy fire without any artillery support from their own side to gain 1,300 yards. The battalion suffered 186 killed or wounded and a further 160 sick, the majority suffering with dysentery. The battalion was garrisoned at Hill 60 and had to endure disease, swarms of flies, heat, water shortage and lack of transport.
Wilfred served alongside other Sudbury men including his Commanding Officer Lt. Colonel William Morris Armes, Albert Byham, Harry Farrant, Percy Hume, Bertie Martin and David Pettit, who all lost their lives in the Gallipoli Campaign.
He was killed in action on 18 September 1915 aged 37 and lies buried in Hill 60 Cemetery, Turkey.
His widow received a letter from Captain B E Oliver, an extract was printed in the Suffolk and Essex Free Press on 13 October 1915: ‘It may be of some slight comfort to you to know that he died doing his duty, and also to hear that without exception he was the best man in the Battalion, and his loss is the greatest blow which my company could receive. Being my company Sgt-Major I have been in the closest contact with him, and I may say that I never want to meet a finer character nor a better personal friend. No one knows more than I what he has done for this company and Battalion: and quite apart from his value as a soldier his loss has been greatest personal blow to me since we have been out here: in fact it has cast a deep gloom over the whole battalion. I know you will want to hear how he died so I will tell you briefly. We had been for three days in the trenches and were about to be relieved at five o'clock last night (Sept 18th), when the Turks started a rather severe artillery bombardment and a heavy musketry fire all along the line. I was in charge of the trench and was sitting in my "dug out" with your husband and my cousin, Capt C.M. Oliver who was about to relieve us. We all three rushed out to get into the fire trench, your husband following me. On reaching the fire trench I went along to the right and never saw your husband alive again. He went to the left and was standing close to my cousin when he was suddenly struck in the face either by a piece of shell or a ricocheting bullet, I cannot tell which. It may be some comfort to you to know that he did not suffer, as he was killed instantaneously. We buried him last night by moonlight, the service being conducted by our chaplain, Capt Rev Pierrepont Edwards. I am having a wooden cross put over his grave.’
On 9 October 1915 during a memorial service at St. Andrew’s Church in Great Cornard for Russell Wordley reference was made to ‘the untimely decease of Sergeant Major Hunt, who was also a resident in the parish, liked by all around, a kind friend and a good neighbour.’
Wilfred was awarded the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and Victory Medal. He is also remembered on the Great Cornard War Memorial and as a member of the Sudbury Conservative Club his name was recorded on their Roll of Honour.
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