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Thomas Edward Hunt Thomas Edward Hunt, the eldest child of three, was born on 6 August 1896 to Thomas Arthur Hunt, a miller's carter, and Matilda née Dainty. The family lived in the hamlet of Fromebridge. Thomas had left school by the time of the 1911 census and became a wool finisher.
On 1 December 1914 he enlisted into the Royal Marines Artillery at Bristol as a private. After training Thomas became a gunner on 30 May 1915 and appears to have served on the Western Front from 27 July 1915 to 17 October 1917, followed by a transfer to an Anti-Aircraft Battery at Chatham Dockyard until June 1918. He then re-crossed the Channel to serve on anti-aircraft guns at Dunkirk for the rest of the war. The Armistice, however, did not signal the end of Thomas Hunt's service; by April 1919 he was posted to the Aegean Garrison, serving at Constantinople until November. Only three months later he was again in the Mediterranean theatre, joining HMS Emperor of India in the Black Sea as part of the British intervention in the Russian Civil War. Returning home at the end of March 1921, he was again sent overseas: he appears to have spent the next two years at the Royal Navy shore station named Benbow, on the island of Trinidad. His last recorded seagoing post was in the battleship Barham from May to July 1923, before being transferred to Plymouth Division. Thomas was awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal at Plymouth in January 1930, but was discharged on 15 June 1932 on the grounds of ill health as he had apparently been suffering from epileptic fits. On retirement, he planned to enter into partnership with Richard Hart, a farmer in Westbury on Severn, but on 22 October 1933, about a fortnight after he had moved to Moys Hill Cottage, Thomas Edward Hunt was found dead in his bed having suffered a fatal fit. He was buried in St Mary's churchyard in Frampton three days later. For his service during the war Thomas was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal, and is also commemorated on the plaque in Frampton Village Hall. |