Orders, Decorations and Medals

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Cape Colony, South Africa 1901 (Gunr. W. C. Hunt, H.M.S. Beagle) large impressed naming, good very fine £300-350

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Boer War Medals to the Royal Navy.

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William Clark Hunt was born on 3 October 1870. He was promoted to Acting Gunner on 5 October 1900 when on the Beagle. Serving in the Boer War he was awarded the Queen’s medal with two clasps - one of 17 men of the ship so entitled. Serving as Gunner he remained on the ship until April 1904. In April 1914 he was posted to the battlecruiser Invincible. With the ship he saw action at the Battle of Falklands, 8 December 1914. The Invincible was the flagship of Vice-Admiral Sturdee, who led a force of battle-, armoured- and light cruisers in action against the German East Asiatic Squadron of armoured and light cruisers commanded by Admiral Graf Maximillian von Spee. The Invincible and her sister ship, Inflexible, were instrumental in sinking the armoured cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the action. On 1 January 1915, probably for his services in that action, Hunt was specially promoted to Chief Gunner. Remaining on the Invincible, Chief Gunner Hunt was killed in action at the battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916, when his ship, which formed part of the 3rd Battle Cruiser Squadron, forming the vanguard of the British battle fleet, came under sustained fire from German heavy units. Repeatedly hit, she blew up with the loss of 59 officers and 961 ratings - only two officers and four ratings of the ship survived. Chief Gunner Hunt was the husband of Maria A. Hunt of 15 Spa Road, Radipole, Weymouth; his name is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial. Sold with some service details.