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| This photo was taken at the rear of the residence at
"The Whins", in Sedgefield Place Cursor on a face to display person's name, only the five children are identified. |
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Frederick Hunton was the only Durham county councilor to be killed in the Great War.
He was born at Tennant Street, Stockton, on 25 June 1869, the eleventh (and last) child of John Hunton and his wife, Mary Ann.
John and Mary Ann Knowles had married in Stockton in early 1853.
Although the baptisms of Frederick's next two older siblings, Mary and Henry, can be located in St. Thomas' church in March 1866 and February 1868 respectively, neither Frederick nor any of the other children appear to have been baptised in an Anglican church in Stockton or Norton.
In the spring of 1891 he was completing the first stage of his qualification as a medical practitioner - he was awarded his bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery degrees in September 1891, and was registered with the Medical Council on 8 October.
His medical doctorate followed in September 1893, and a second Medical Council registration on 16 October.
He married Maud Mary Laing Young in 1898.
After her early death, he married her triplet sister Eleanor Mary Webster Young.
In addition to his role as a general practitioner, Dr. Hunton is listed in the 1902 Kelly's Directory as the Medical Officer of Health for Sedgefield Rural District Council, the Medical Officer for the Sedgefield district of Sedgefield Poor Law Union and the Medical Officer for Sedgefield Workhouse. This information is repeated in the 1910 Directory, and in the 1914 Directory, and in the latter he is also described as the Medical Officer to the Sedgefield RDC Infectious Diseases Hospital. In April 1910 he stood in a by-election for the County Council Sedgefield division, which had become vacant when the previous county councilor, Simon Tate, was elected as an alderman. He was one of four candidates, and was elected with 566 votes, a majority of 41 over W. Dobson, a draper. In his obituary Dr. Hunton was described as a good sportsman and a regular follower of the South Durham foxhounds, based at Sedgefield, and his hunting interest is revealed in his comments after the election, which was he said was 'a splendid gallop. He had had a few brushes in his time, but he thought this was the best brush of all'. He stood again at the triennial elections in April 1913 and was re-elected unopposed. Frederick Hunton volunteered for service in the British Army in 1914, when he was 45, and he was gazetted as a lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps (but attached to units other than medical units) on 5 January 1915, subsequently corrected to 17 December 1914. His Service Record has been extensively weeded but his application for a commission includes a certificate of good moral character signed by viscount Boyne of Brancepeth Castle. He was initially attached to the Northumberland Hussars Yeomanry, a Territorial Force cavalry unit, and was promoted to captain on 17 June 1915. It is not clear where Dr. Hunton was based, but on 13 April 1916 he was given six weeks sick leave following a broken leg which he sustained by falling from a horse on a visit to No.1 (or Northumbrian) Northern General Hospital. |
This was a Territorial Force hospital which was accommodated in Armstrong College (now part of Newcastle University) and the Newcastle Workhouse Infirmary (now Newcastle General Hospital).
On 22 June 1916 he was declared fit for duty and rejoined his unit two days later, but the second half of 1916 is a blank as far as his activities are concerned.
The next we know is that he sailed from Marseilles on 20 December 1916 and on 27 December arrived at Alexandria, where he joined the RAMC base depot at Mustapha. On 13 January 1917 he joined the No.15 Military Hospital at Abbassieh, Alexandria (this was a school which had been converted into a hospital at the beginning of the Gallipoli campaign). Less than a month later, on 2 February, he joined the 1/1st East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry, but on 19 February he was moved to the Casualty Clearing Station attached to the 53rd (Welsh) Division at Ismailia. A Casualty Clearing Station was part of the chain of units dealing with wounded men. Men were initially dealt with at a Regimental Aid Post, then passed to an Advanced Dressing Station, then a Main Dressing Station, before they arrived at a Casualty Clearing Station, which would be about 20 kilometres behind the front line, on a railway line, and would normally have seven medical officers. A CCS would be able to treat at least 200 men at any one time and was the nearest to the front line where nurses were based. The 53rd Division was part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force which was advancing into Turkish-held Palestine. The Sinai and Palestine campaign of the Great War had begun in January 1915 with a German-led Turkish advance from Palestine into Sinai, part of the British Protectorate of Egypt. Following the failure of the Gallipoli campaign the Egyptian Expeditionary Force was created in 1916 from British and imperial troops, and in three battles Sinai was recaptured and Turkish territory in Palestine was occupied. In February 1917 the Expeditionary Force cavalry advance permitted the extension of a railway to Deir el Belah, 20 kilometres south-west of Gaza City, where an aerodrome and camps were established. The Expeditionary Force was subsequently defeated in two battles in March and April 1917 as it attempted to take Gaza, and a period of stalemate followed before the advance north was resumed in October. Frederick Hunton was killed in action on 6 May 1917, age 47, as a result of a bombing raid on Deir el Belah, and was buried in Deir el Belah CWGC cemetery in Gaza. This cemetery, which contains 724 Commonwealth war graves, was begun in March 1917. Frederick Hunton was one of the 743 RAMC officers who died in the Great War, and he is commemorated on the war memorial cross outside St. Edmund's church, Sedgefield, where a memorial service was held on 19 May 1917. His is also one of the 53 names on the Newcastle University Medical School memorial plaque which was unveiled in 1923 and was originally located in the entrance hall of the Old Medical Building in Framlington Place, Newcastle. (It is now in Room 98 in the Medical School). |
| Gwendolen Mary | Born abt 1899 | Sedgefield | Married Lawrence O'Shaughnessy | ||
| Winifred | Born abt 1901 | Sedgefield | Remained Single | ||
| Maud Ænid | Born abt 1902 | Sedgefield | Remained Single |
| Frederick Hunton |
b: 25 Jun 1869 Stockton, County Durham 1869 1Q Stockton 10a xx son of John Hunton and Mary Ann Knowles |
| Maud Mary Laing Young |
b: abt 1876 Wolviston, County Durham 1876 3Q Stockton 10a 88 triplet daughter of William Joseph Young and Mary Frances Webster |
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abt 1898 Frederick Hunton Maud Mary Laing Young | Stockton, County Durham 1898 1Q Stockton 10a 105 |
| Gwendolen Mary Hunton |
b:abt 1899 Sedgefield, County Durham 1899 3Q Sedgefield 10a 97 daughter of Frederick Hunton and Maud Mary Laing Young |
| Winifred Hunton |
b:abt 1901 Sedgefield, County Durham 1901 2Q Sedgefield 10a 104 daughter of Frederick Hunton and Maud Mary Laing Young |
| 1901 Census | RG13-4631 | 1 April 1901 | Sedgefield, County Durham | ||
| High Row Sedgefield | |||||
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Frederick Hunton Maud M. L. (Wife) Gwendoline Winifred Sarah Soulsby (Boarder) Plus 2 Servants |
Age 31 Age 24 Age 1 Age 1 Mon Age 48 |
Physician & Surgeon Hospital Nurse |
Stockton Wolviston Sedgefield Sedgefield Hetton le Hole |
Durham Durham Durham Durham Durham |
abt 1869 abt 1876 abt 1899 abt 1901 abt 1852 |
| Maud Ænid Hunton |
b:abt 1902 Sedgefield, County Durham 1902 3Q Sedgefield 10a 109 daughter of Frederick Hunton and Maud Mary Laing Young |
| Maud Mary Laing (Young) Hunton | Died 8 Sep 1902, Age 26, 1902 3Q Sedgefield 10a 51 |
| HUNTON, Maud Mary Laing, of Sedgefield, county Durham, (wife of Frederick Hunton) died 8 September 1902, Probate Durham, 31 January, to the said Frederick Hunton, physician and surgeon, and Eleanor Mary Webster Young, spinster. Effects £6,206 15s. 7d. |
| Doreen | Born abt 1910 | Sedgefield | Married Georges Kopp | ||
| Arthur F. | Born abt 1912 | Sedgefield | Married Monica Burling |
| Eleanor Mary Webster Young |
b: abt 1876 Wolviston, County Durham 1876 3Q Stockton 10a 88 triplet daughter of William Joseph Young and Mary Frances Webster |
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abt 1907 Frederick Hunton Eleanor Mary Webster Young | Sedgefield, County Durham 1907 4Q Sedgefield 10a 193 |
| Doreen Hunton |
b: abt 1910 Sedgefield, County Durham 1910 2Q Sedgefield 10a 177 daughter of Frederick Hunton and Eleanor Mary Webster Young |
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1911 Census The Whins |
RG14 | 3 April 1911 | Sedgefield, County Durham | ||
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Frederick Hunton Eleanor Mary Webster (Wife) Gwendolen Mary Winifred Ænid Maud Doreen |
Age 41 Age 34 Age 11 Age 10 Age 8 Age 1 |
Physician & Surgeon |
Stockton Wolviston Sedgefield Sedgefield Sedgefield Sedgefield |
Durham Durham Durham Durham Durham Durham |
abt 1869 abt 1876 abt 1899 abt 1901 abt 1852 abt 1910 |
| Arthur F. Hunton |
b: abt 1912 Sedgefield, County Durham 1912 1Q Sedgefield 10a 353 son of Frederick Hunton and Eleanor Mary Webster Young |
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| Frederick Hunton |
| Frederick Hunton | Died 4 May 1917 Palestine |
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IN Memory of CAPTAIN F. Hunton Royal Army Medical Corps Who Died on 4 May 1917 REMEMBERED WITH HONOUR |
| DEIR EL BELAH WAR CEMETERY Palestine |
The Times, Saturday, May 12, 1917 Deaths
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LONDON 2 Jan 1918 Probate
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| Eleanor Mary Webster (Young) Hunton | Died 3 May 1929, Age 53, 1929 2Q Uckfield 2b 164 |
The Times, Tuesday, May 7, 1929 Deaths
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DURHAM 15 Aug 1929 Probate
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