1179 Sergeant John Hunter,
2/1st
Northamptonshire Yeomanry
T/2245 Private William Bell Hunter,
1/5th Battalion, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
Six months before his death, John Hunter had married Maud Ann Maddison, the daughter of John Maddison, a widowed tailor and publican from West Street, in Oundle. The couple did not have any children.
John Hunter’s grave is marked by a privately erected headstone in white marble, with lead lettering.
Maud Hunter did not remarry and she died in 1944. Maude Hunter is buried with her husband in Oundle Cemetery.
William Bell Hunter did move to Woking, with his parents. Given that he enlisted into the Queen’s (Royal West Surrey) Regiment on 7th August 1914, only three days after war was declared, it is likely that the family was still living in Woking at the time.
He volunteered for service and enlisted into the 1/5th Battalion of the Royal West Surrey Regiment, which was based at Guildford. This battalion was sent to India on 29th October 1914, but William Hunter did not go with it, presumably as he was still undergoing his training. During this time it is most likely that he would have been attached to the 3/5th Battalion, which was a reserve battalion formed to train recruits and hold men until they were needed for drafts to the fighting battalion. William Hunter eventually joined his battalion at Bombay (Mumbai) on 2nd December 1915 when it was moved from Lucknow in India to Mesopotamia as part of 12th Brigade, 12th Indian Division.