HUNT, Charles

Charles Hunt was the son of James and Annie Hunt of 10 Tipton Road, Sedgley. In 1914 he was a moulder in a hollow-ware works and he volunteered, along with his brother Frederick, for the South Staffordshire Territorials. His number was 2667 and his brother’s 2662. He joined the 1/6th Battalion in the 137th (Staffordshire) Brigade, 46th (North Midland) Division, and went to the Western Front on the 5th March 1915. After serving in the Ypres sector for three months they were moved to Artois early in October to reinforce the units still fighting the Battle of Loos. They were given the difficult task of attacking the Hohenzollern Redoubt and Fosse 8 in front of which many other units had failed. They attacked over open ground at 2 p.m. on the 13th October. It was nearly half a mile to the well defended German wire and a third of the men were casualties, including Frederick who was killed. It took some to reorganise the Battalion and their next big task was the attack at Gommecourt Wood on the 1st July, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. After a week of shelling the German trenches the troops were again expected to attack across open country and cover half a mile to reach the well defended enemy lines. Losses were again very high and Charles Hunt was among the severely wounded. He was sent to Le Treport to one of the military hospitals near Dieppe where he died of wounds on the 9th August. He was 24 years of age and is buried in Mont Huon Military Cemetery (II B 2). and commemorated on the Sedgley Memorial.