Horace Hunt was born March 10, 1897, son of Charles and Martha Anne Hunt, with the family residing at 326 Flora Street with six children in total. Young Horace was active at St. Matthew’s, and on June 28, 1909 at Britannia, he won prizes for both the 600 yard and one mile races at the Church spring picnic.



At 15 years of age, Horace Hunt (#7831) joined local militia units from 1912 onwards. By 1914, he was living with his brother in Woodroffe and working as a plasterer when war broke out. Like many of his friends, this caused him to enlist on September 22, 1914, just weeks after war was declared, at age 17. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, C Company, Eastern Ontario Regiment, Governor General’s Foot Guards, Canadian Infantry as a Bugler and was shipped to England just 11 days later on October 3, 1914, one of the very first Canadian units to depart overseas. Horace seemed happy and wrote to his mother in early April 1915 cheerfully stating that, he “had been complimented by his officer for winning distinction in company regimental sports”.

That same month, the First Canadian Division and his unit was deployed on the Western Front in Northwestern France and became embroiled in the Battle of St. Julien, part of the Second Battle of Ypres on April 24, 1915. It was on that day when German forces attacked the Canadians in an attempt to obliterate the salient which was stubbornly occupied by the Canadians, once and for all. Violent artillery bombardments were followed by one of the first documented uses of deadly mustard gas with the target being the Canadian line. Intense combat followed this barrage with the Canadians able to hold their positions until reinforcements finally arrived.

In their first appearance on a European battlefield, Canadian troops had established a reputation as a formidable fighting force., but at a most terrible price. In just two horrific days of battle, 6,035 Canadians - one in every three soldiers - were lost from Canada's force of hastily trained civilians who had arrived just months earlier on the Western Front.  And one of these casualties was young Horace Hunt.

In a letter from his fellow Bugler, G. Cassidy to Horace’s mother, he wrote the following:     “The Germans had been shelling us all day. Bugler Hunt had been missing…they found him with a bullet through his forehead and one through his chest…they found 6 or 7 dead Germans around him. We don’t know if he killed them, but if he did, he sold his life dearly. We buried him and Serg Aballard of Brockville in the same grave.” Later, when the Canadians returned to recover their bodies, and as became common throughout the war, their corpses were never found, possibly due to subsequent artillery fire. The Battle of Ypres is permanently remembered by the people of Belgium at the Memorial at the Menin Gate, in Ypres. On the walls of this unique Memorial are inscribed the names of 54,839 allied servicemen who were killed in this deadly Battle of Ypres and whose bodies were never found. The name of Bugler Horace Hunt, 2nd Battalion is posted on these marble walls in perpetuity. To this day, at 8pm every evening since 1928, the citizens of Ypres remember these souls, and perform “The Last Post” ceremony, with Canadian supplied silver bugles.

Built by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, at the upper arch are engraved the following words: “To the armies of the British Empire who stood here from 1914 to 1918 and to those of their dead who have no known grave.”  And below that is the following where the actual names are located: “Here are recorded names of officers and men who fell in Ypres Salient but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured, burial, given to their comrades in death.” The name of Bugler and Private Horace Hunt, 2nd Battalion, Canadian Infantry, is so recorded.

Less than a year after his death, his father Charles, age 48, enlisted and served in the 77th and 224 Forestry Battalions. Following the war, he became the drum major for the Governor General’s Foot Guards in honour of his 18 yearold son Horace. Bugler Horace Hunt turned out to be not only one of the first from St. Matthew’s to be killed in action in World War 1, but also proved to be the youngest of all 48 men from the congregation killed in both wars. Private Horace Hunt is remembered in Ypres and at St. Matthew’s.