HUNTER, John Anderson
| Service Number: | 18878 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 23 November 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Bombardier |
| Last Unit: | 7th Field Artillery Brigade |
| Born: | Forbes, New South Wales, Australia, 1896 |
| Home Town: | Forbes, Forbes, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Clerk |
| Died: | Castle Hill, New South Wales, Australia, 29 May 1985, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 23 Nov 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Gunner, 18878, 7th Field Artillery Brigade | |
|---|---|---|
| 11 May 1916: | Involvement Gunner, 18878, 7th Field Artillery Brigade, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '4' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Argyllshire embarkation_ship_number: A8 public_note: '' | |
| 11 May 1916: | Embarked Gunner, 18878, 7th Field Artillery Brigade, HMAT Argyllshire, Sydney | |
| 13 Oct 1917: | Promoted AIF WW1, Bombardier, 7th Field Artillery Brigade |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Acting Bombardier ‘Jack’ Hunter, was son of Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Hunter, of "Koyong," Forbes, returned to Forbes during May 1919. Hunter was attached to the 7th Battery, of the 7th Brigade, and had been on active service just three years. During his career on the Western Front, the young Forbes soldier had taken part in some very heavy fighting and on 18 March 1918, near Amiens, he was very severely wounded in the leg. As a result, he spent nine months in hospital in Birmingham, and was afterwards at Harefield Park and Weymouth Hospitals. The shrapnel wound involved a fractured femur and hip bone. The leg had been operated on several times and on his return home to Australia he still faced further treatment.
He was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre, the recommendation stating, “During 1917 and the first three months of 1918, Gunner J.A. Hunter, who is at present in hospital as a result of wounds, did work of an exceptional character on the Belgian Front.
On one occasion Gunner Hunter was the only man left of his detachment and continued to fire his gun until the barrage was completed. Throughout the whole of the Ypres operations, Hunter was continually with the guns. His gallant conduct not only helped to strengthen the moral of the battery during the most trying circumstances but assisted materially in carrying out its engagements.”
His older brother, Lt. Robert Clive Hunter 2nd Battalion AIF was killed in action in France on 13 June 1916, aged 24.
A brother who enlisted the same day, 18879 Gunner William Kilpatrick Hunter, 7th Field Artillery Brigade, was wounded in 1918, and Captain Ronald James Hunter, a doctor in the Australian Army Medical Corps, both returned to Australia in 1919.
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