Person

Sydney Hunter, the son of Albert and Ann M Hunter, was born in Usworth, Sunderland in 1882. He had two brothers and four sisters and was a striker when he joined the Durham Light Infantry at Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 30 October 1899.

He was posted to the 1st Battalion on 24 February 1900 and landed in South Africa on 25 May. The following day he was transferred to the 3rd Battalion and almost a year later was transferred back to the 1st Battalion. Some months later he was wounded and was sent back to England on 12 October 1901. A year later he bought himself out and went to work in his uncle’s hotel.

At the end of 1909 Sydney married Elizabeth Hannah Paxton and they had a daughter the following year. By 1911, he was proprietor of the hotel and, on 24 October 1914, he re-enlisted in the Durham Light Infantry, joining the 15th Battalion and rising to the rank of Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant and Acting Regimental Sergeant-Major.

During his time in France he was twice Mentioned in Despatches, was awarded the Meritorious Conduct Medal and won the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) during the ‘100 Days Offensive’. After demobilisation he returned to the hotel in Washington which he ran until he and his family emigrated to Canada on 13 May 1927.

His award of the DCM was gazetted on 15 November 1918 and the citation reads:

“In September 1918, during an attack, under very heavy machine-gun fire, this warrant officer set a conspicuous and brilliant example of courage and determination, which did much to encourage the men in the difficult task of the advance. He assisted the officers to reorganise when the objective was captured, displaying the utmost coolness under heavy fire”.

There was also a article about Sydney in the Calgary Veteran in 1964:

‘No. 19353- R.S.M Sydney Hunter, D.C.M., M.M. Twice mentioned in Dispatches. The 15th Durham Light Infantry
In September, 1918 the Times of London issued the following in its Honours and Awards column: ‘The Distinguished Conduct Medal has been awarded to R.Q.M.S. (A/R.S.M.) S.Hunter of the Durham Light Infantry’. During an attack, and under heavy machine gun fire, this warrant officer set up a conspicuous and brilliant example of courage and determination which did much to encourage the men in the difficult task of the advance. Then again dated November the 7th 1917, ‘To the Durham Light Infantry, Rgt. No. 19353. R.Q.M.S S. Hunter of the 15th Battalion. Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig K.G, G.C.B, G.C.V.O, A.C.I.E is pleased to mention in dispatches this Warrant Officer for Gallant and Distinguished Services in the Field’, signed Winston S. Churchill, Secretary of State for War. Then again on March the 16th 1918 the same notification was sent to the Durham Light Infantry, 15th Batt. As all Servicemen and Veterans know, The D.C.M is the next medal to the V.C. The Durham Light Infantry dates its records back to 1758. In the first Great War 36 Battalions were raised in Durham, and the North of England, and fought in every major engagement. Mons, Somme, Cambrai, Ypres, Passchendaele, the Aisne and so on, winning many battle honours. The Canadians of World War Two will remember the Durham’s. In November, 1944 when they were ordered to capture Walcheren and Beveland, and clear the Scheldt estuary of the enemy, it was the Durham Light Infantry who were in action with them. It is rather interesting to note that Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery, in describing the D.L.I’s in action stated: ‘I have seen the Durham Light Infantry in peace and in war; the Durham men are tough and have that tenacity in battle which stamps the first class soldier. There may be some Regiments as good, but there are none better’. R.S.M. Sid Hunter, D.C.M, M.M is one of these people. His South African service stamps him as a Britisher and Canadian of the first class. To the incoming Executive I address these few words. We as a Branch, can afford to pay some $1500 a year for Provincial Command Sports ventures, is it not feasible to spend a few dollars a year to honour these Eighty and over Veterans who paved the way for we, who are today reaping the benefit of their sacrifice. Remember we are living in a free country because of them’.

Further, this letter from J. Ellis to Colonel Maughan discusses Sydney’s funeral arrangements:

Dear Colonel Maughan,
Thank you for your letter dated 18th ult. Arrangements have now been made for the internment of the ashes of Mr. Hunter in the family grave at Washington Co. Durham at 1500 hours on Monday, 25th April 1966.
Mrs. Gough gave me details in a recent letter of the ceremony in Calgary. Her father received military honours at the cremation, the coffin being draped with the Union Jack and attended by six Boer War Veterans as honorary pall bearers- each of them over 80 years of age. He had been an active member of the Calgary Veterans Association.
I have not conveyed to Mrs. Gough your very kind offer for the Regiment to be represented at Washington. She has been greatly affected by her father’s death, having also lost her mother and her husband comparatively recently so that she hoped this final act would be performed with as little ceremony as possible. This the Undertaker is arranging to do so.
Sydney Hunter always spoke with great pride of his old Regiment and his associations with ‘Saint Cuthbert for Durham’.
Perhaps you will find the enclosed Photostat copy of interest. It was published in the ‘Calgary Veteran’ in January 1964.
I think the ceremony on 25th April will be very short and simple with perhaps only a dozen people present.
The arrangements are in the hands of Mr. J. Hunter, Undertaker, Derwent Terrace, Washington, but no relationship exists between the similar names.
I shall be attending.
There is no need to acknowledge this letter.
To the Durham Light Infantry, the Officers and yourself- Good Fortune!
Yours Sincerely,
J.Ellis

International Encyclopedia of the First World War, page on Hundred Days Offensive:
https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/hundred_days_offensive

Durham Light Infantry, medals collection online database:
http://dlicollection.durham.gov.uk/pgFullBiography.aspx?&BioId=6165&BioSurname=Hunter&AZ=Y

Civil Parish: Washington

Birth date: 1882

Death date: 1966

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: Commercial Hotel, The Green, Washington (1911 census)

Employment: Striker (British Army WWI Pension Records 1914-1920)
Hotel Proprietor (1911 census)

Family: Father: Albert Hunter
Mother: Anna M Hunter (nee Collins)
Siblings: Florence G, Elizabeth Ada, Albert, Frederick William, Frances Alison & Julia Hunter
Wife: Elizabeth Hannah Hunter (nee Paxton)
Daughter: Gladys Hunter

Military service:

Boer War: 1st & 3rd Battalions Durham Light Infantry
Regimental number: 6939
Private
First World War:
15th Battalion Durham Light Infantry
Regimental number: 19353
Regimental Quartermaster-Sergeant

Medal(s): Boer War:
Queen’s South Africa Medal with 4 clasps
King’s South Africa Medal
Good Conduct Medal

First World War:
Distinguished Conduct Medal
Meritorious Service Medal
Mentioned in despatches (twice)
1914/15 Star
British War Medal
Victory Medal

Gender: Male

Contributed by John Edwards