Brigadier H M A Hunter CVO DSO MBE

Commanding Officer - The East Surrey Regiment & (The Wiltshire Regiment)

Commanded 1^st Bn The East Surrey Regiment from 1^st June,1944 to July 1945.

Henry Michael Allan Hunter, known as Michael, was born on 29^th June 1913 and educated at Marlborough College and the RMC Sandhurst. He was commissioned in The Wiltshire Regiment in February 1933 and joined the 2^nd Battalion. In 1935 he was posted to the 1^st Battalion in India and in 1938 was appointed adjutant. He returned to England in 1940 and after a staff appointment in Northern Ireland attended the Staff College, Camberley in 1942. He then became GSO II at HQ 78^th Infantry Division and served in North Africa and Italy. He was Mentioned in Despatches in 1943 and after a tour as a company commander in 5^th Bn The Northamptonshire Regiment for which he was made a MBE he was posted early in 1944 to 1^st Bn The East Surrey Regiment as second-in-command.

On 1^st June he was appointed to command the Battalion which he led until July 1945 when he returned to the Staff as AA and QMG at HQ 4^th Infantry Division. For his fine leadership of 1 Surreys he was awarded the DSO. After other staff appointments he attended the Joint Services Staff College. In 1951 he rejoined 1^st Bn The Wiltshire Regiment and became second-in-command and was made a Brevet Lieutenant Colonel in 1953. After two years in the Military Secretary's Branch he was appointed to command the 1^st Battalion and led it in operations against EOKA in Cyprus. In 1959 he was appointed Colonel Programmes Division SHAPE. He ended his Army career as Defence Attaché’ in Brussels when he was appointed a CVO and also decorated by the King of the Belgian’s.

He retired from the Army in June 1968. He was the son of the late Brigadier H N A Hunter DSO of The Queen's Royal Regiment.

See death notice in The Queen's Royal Surrey Regimental Association Newsletter No.31 May 1982 page 9.

His obituary appeared in the 1982 edition of the Regimental Journal of The Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment. From 1969 to 1976 he was Colonel of The Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment, and died on 11^th November 1981.

For obituary see QRSNL May 1982 page 9 also QRSNL May 1982 page 29

 

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