Morton Stanley Curran Hunt

Rank: 
Corporal
Regimental number: 
86292
Unit at enlistment: 
5th Brigade C.F.A., 17th Battery
Force: 
C.E.F.
Volunteered or conscripted: 
Volunteered
Survived the war: 
No
Date of death: 
July 10th, 1917
Cemetery: 
Greenwood Cemetery, Brantford, Ontario
Birth country: 
Canada
Birth county: 
Brant
Birth city: 
Brantford, Ontario
Address at enlistment: 
26 Charlotte Street, Brantford, Ontario
Next of kin address: 
Trinity College, Toronto, Ontario
Trade or calling: 
Contractor
Religious denominations: 
Church of England
Marital status: 
Single
Age at enlistment: 
29

Letters and documents

Cause of Death: Pulmonary Tuberculosis 
Location: Brantford, Ontario

BX July 11, 1917

Corporal Curran Morton Hunt, son of the late Wellington and Mrs. Hunt of this city, passed away yesterday after an illness of some month’s duration. The deceased, while visiting in Winnipeg shortly after the war broke out, joined the Army Service Corps and was attached to the Light Field Artillery Brigade, and owing to his previous training here he did excellent work with the transports. He was taken ill overseas and consequently was invalided home to Brantford some time ago. He was very well known here. The funeral will take place from H.B. Beckett’s undertaking parlors on Dalhousie Street to the Greenwood cemetery on Thursday, with services at Grace Church.

December 12, 1917

A Vindication

December 11, 1917
1 Church Street,
Brantford

Sir,

The enclosed is a copy of a letter handed me to read and I am sending it to you in hopes you will print it as a tribute to Curran Hunt. As a boy I was very fond of him. He had many good traits and it was a sorrow to have him go away and perhaps in this world, where he did his “bit” and did it well, he has wiped out some of his sins of omission and he will be judged accordingly, and not from our human standpoint. As a friend I would like to see this slight vindication made public through the press. If you cannot do so, will you please return the letter and oblige. 

Yours truly

Lyzie H. Goold

August 5, 1917
France

Dear Mrs. Hunt

Mother’s letter telling me that Curran had left you came today. A letter seems a useless thing, but perhaps one coming from France, where his record is known and from one who knows what that record means may be of some comfort to you.

One of the finest sights that I have ever seen was one day last year in June, from the door of a dugout under a railroad embankment we could see the main road that ran forward to the guns. It was in full view of the enemy, also for perhaps half or three-quarters of a mile, and ordinarily would only have been used at night for a few days. However, you may remember conditions on the Canadian front were not ordinary, and the ammunition column would gallop their six-horse limbers straight over his open road to the partial shelter of the gun positions, unloading then wing about and gallop back for more. It was like a picture from the Illustrated Weekly, with the addition of the thunder of the horses and those heavy wagons on the stone pavement and the whistle and crash of shells bursting all along the road. The enemy was firing directly on them, but this mad, half-mile gallop gave our guns plenty of shells for their reply. Curran was through the whole of it, as he may or may not have told you. Afterwards his division took Courcelette and he was in that part of the country for some weeks. The whole success of that operation depended on the supply of ammunition by the column. Roads did not exist, and all night long strings of pack horses and mules loaded with ammunition in baskets pushed through the mud and shell holes to keep the guns supplied. I heard of Curran several times through Col. Cutcliffe, but we were both too busy to see each other. About this time, he was having a good deal of trouble with his ear, but refused to take Col. Cutcliffe’s advice and report to the medical officer. He was afraid they would send home back, when there was still work to do. We were not in the same division, and so among many things it is only these few I know about to write you.
    
The day after day work with the horses he loved and the night after night riding with the long column going forward to the guns, the blocks in the traffic from the shell fire at the cross roads would all be ordinary routine matters of his weeks. It is the record of a soldier and a gallant gentleman, and it is well known among the men he was with.
    
Sympathy even from one who has lost such a friend as Curran was to me is. I know of little value, but perhaps these few lines telling you how he played the game and played it well, may be a little comfort when some comfort is badly needed.

With Love,

Gerald Wilkes