Lance Corporal William Hunter

Lance Corporal William Hunter, 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed by a sniper in France on 1st October 1915, aged 21. He was the son of James and Elizabeth Hunter of Blakewell Road, Tweedmouth and is buried in Houplines Communal Cemetery Extension, nr., Armentieres, Nord, France. Before the War he had been employed as a grocer with Messrs, Renton of Berwick-upon-Tweed.  The ” Berwickshire Advertiser ” included in the report of his death that he was the Grandson of James Hunter who had taken part in the ” never to be forgotten charge of the Six Hundred at Balaklava in the Crimean War and was wounded and tended by Florence Nightingale in Scutari Hospital “. If this is meant to refer to the Charge of Light Cavalry it is not clear. There is no record of a James Hunter taking part in this famous action. The photograph shows the impressive Memorial raised to commemorate the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until February 1915. It was erected near the village of Weiltje in the Ypres Salient where nearby the Division fought its first action of the War on 26th April 1915 during the Battle of St. Julien only days after landing on the Continent.