Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Arthur was my mother's cousin. She didn't know him but only heard about him once or twice when she was a youngster in Belgrave. Some of her older female relatives were talking and the name Arthur came up. Mum asked who he was. She was told along this line, "Ee don't talk about him. Don't bother about him." That was that. About 80 years later a cousin of mine researching the family asked me about Arthur Hunt. I didn't know anything. The name was new. Mum told me the story she heard and later another cousin in Hobart, filled in more.
Arthur was born out of wedlock in 1898. The father's name is unknown. Arthur didn't know that his sister was his mother and his very old mother, who was 49 when he was born, was really his grandmother.
Apparently all was going to be revealed to Arthur after he came back from the war He never came back and his story was buried until the early 21st century.
We don't know if Arthur had a girlfriend. There are no photos of him around taken when he was a soldier. There is one photo of him supposedly taken about 1908.
He died in the opening hours of a great battle. He was with a British tank crew which was providing logistical support. The tank was not heavily armoured or fitted with guns. A German gun crew put it out of action quickly. Arthur's body, along with two others, were left covered on the field before they were moved to be buried near Villers-Brettenoux. The Red Cross file on Arthur goes into a lot of detail. However, it seems his remains were later moved to Adelaide cemetery in V-B and is among the 300 un-marked graves lying there. Darn.
Arthur lived in Coburg for a while before the war and it was believed that a memorial tree planted in his honour by the Coburg Council. I went to the Coburg Lake Resreve to look for it. The tree had been one of a few removed to make way for a path. Darn.
I later found out that the tree in question was actually for another, unrelated Arthur Hunt who was a Coburg resident. Arthur had put down Monbulk as his hometown on the application form. Darn

I live in hope that one day I'll find the resting place of Arthur Hunt and say a few kind and true words to his soul.

Colin