HUNT Leslie Hubert

Worked for the council as a school teacher within the county.

Appears on the Royal Air Force casualties list for Worcestershire.

The new year started badly with the news of the death in action of 32 year old F/O Leslie Hunt on January 31st.  He was the son of William Hunt of Kinnersley and his wife Florence.  Bill Hunt, with his brother George, had an undertaker’s business in Upton on Severn.  Leslie had been educated at Hanley Grammar School and then spent two years at Saltby College in Birmingham training to become a teacher.  His first post was at Kempsey School which he later left for a position at Watt Close School in Birmingham.  A most popular figure locally, he had been licensed as a lay preacher in 1932, and took an active part in parish affairs, captaining the Cricket XI in 1938-39 and running a successful class for physical education.  In 1940 he joined the RAF, being commissioned as Pilot Officer (Observer) in December 1941.  He saw service in West Africa, and after promotion to Flying Officer in October 1942 was posted to No 227 Squadron in Malta.  Flying Beaufighters, the Squadron’s task was to attack enemy shipping in the Mediterranean and it was during one of these sorties that his plane was shot down.  There is a memorial slab on his parent’s grave in Severn Stoke churchyard.

Source for additional information: Severn Stoke. The Parish in Wartime 1939 – 1945 by Bob Cross, 1999.

A letter from W.J.S. Davies Severn Stoke Rectory, dated 16th May 1950 can be found within war records held at Worcestershire Archives requesting that Flt Lieutenant Leslie Hubert Hunt, RAF, be added to the county roll of honour.

Pilot Officer L.H. Hunt, c/o Watt Close School, Bromsgrove appears on a list of men from the Bromsgrove District killed in the 1939 – 1945 war, provided by the Reverend C.W. Banner, “Tuffley”, 19 Stourbridge Road, Bromsgrove, dated 29th June 1950.