Frederick Hunt was born on 1 December 1889 in the Hertfordshire village of Pirton. He was the fifth child of Henry and Edith Hunt (née Chamberlain), after Ellen, Alfred, George (who had died at the age of four in 1884) and Arthur, and his early years brought significant upheaval. His father died in 1890, his mother died in 1895 and that same year brought further separation when Ellen married local boy Ralph Titmuss.

The 1901 Census places Ellen and Ralph in Hatley Road, Finsbury Park, where the eight residents of their house included their own two young children plus Alfred and Arthur Hunt. Frederick remained in Pirton, living with Ralph’s parents, but by the time of the 1911 Census, he had been reunited with his brothers. The three were all boarding with Ellen and Ralph, who had moved to 58 Fonthill Road in Finsbury Park and now had three children. Frederick was now 22 and working as a grocer’s assistant.

He served as a Private with the 2nd/3rd (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) and fought on the Western Front in France and Flanders. His date of death (marked as ‘presumed’ in the records) is given as 26 October 1917, the first day of the Second Battle of Passchendaele, on which his battalion suffered a crippling number of casualties. He is one of almost 35,000 Allied soldiers whose lives are commemorated at the nearby Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium.

During the First World War, the New Court Congregational Church manual that was published each year included a roll of honour listing the names of local men who were serving or had died in service. In the 1918 and 1919 editions, two asterisks appear beside Frederick’s name, denoting that he had officially been reported missing. It is not known when his family received confirmation of his death. 

The Forces War Records website states that Frederick would have qualified for the Victory and British War medals, and his next of kin would have been sent a Memorial Death Plaque. The UK Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects records that the £7 10/- by which Frederick was in credit at the time of his death was divided equally between Ellen, Alfred and Arthur.