3784 Private Reginald Arthur Hunter - Bairnsdale Killed in Action 19 July 1916

….. not seen after going over the parapet

Reginald Hunter was born at Geelong in 1894, the oldest child born to Robert and Esther Hunter. They family moved to Bairnsdale not long after the birth of their last child in the early 1900s. The children all grew up in Bairnsdale and Reg spent three years in the local Cadet Corps. In July 1915 Hunter, and four others, were farewelled at the Methodist Men’s Club, Bairnsdale after their enlistment and he arrived in Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt on 26 February 1916. With many others he sailed from Alexandria on the Kinfauns Castle for Marseilles. With about twenty other Bairnsdale men he was quartered behind the firing line. In a letter home Pte Fawkner (Sam) Yeates described how a couple of days ago a shell fell about twenty or thirty yards from where Reg Hunter was doing a big washing of clothes. It was close enough to cause the clothes-cleansing to cease for a while, but no damage was done. He had started with the 12 th /7 th  Reinforcements and then transferred to the ill-fated 59 th  Battalion. He was 21 years old when like so many others he was reported missing on 19 July and he was presumed buried in no man’s land near Fleurbaix, France. Several times his father requested information and his son’s belongings but nothing was ever forthcoming. No personal effects were ever returned to his parents and he is remembered at VC Corner, Fromelles. His brother Percy who also enlisted returned to Australia in 1917. In July 1921 the family was advised that the Grave Services Unit had been unable to obtain any trace of him to which his father responded, one of his mates told me today he was not seen after going over the parapet.

Photo courtesy of Melva Calvert, a member of the Hunter family.