W. Bro. Revd. David T. Youngson, PPAG Chaplain, Northumberland offers the following:
The information given below in respect of some of the brethren is the best possible conclusions from Lodge records, Grand Lodge records & Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
685 Northumberland Lodge
Year of Warrant 1856
Masonic Hall Grainger Street Newcastle on Tyne
Captain George Edward HUNTER
Northumberland Fusiliers 6th Battalion (Territorial)
The son of Edward and Anne Cunningham Hunter of Wentworth, Gosforth, Northumberland he was an Architect later joining his Father’s firm, Hunter and Henderson, Stockbrokers of Newcastle and became a Partner. He was Commissioned in 1904 and Gazetted as Captain in 1908. He was Initiated on the 7th March 1911; Passed 3rd October 1911 and Raised on the 7th November 1911. He was appointed Inner Guard in 1912; Junior Deacon 1913 and Senior Deacon in 1914.
He was killed in action during the Second Battle of Ypres near St. Julien on the 26th April, 1915 aged 28 and is Remembered on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, Panel 8 and 12.
Following his death being recorded in the Lodge Minutes a letter from his father was received by the Lodge “I am most grateful to the Northumberland Lodge for the kind sympathy in our great grief. Our only consolation is the kindness we have received from our friends and the knowledge that our boys did their duty.”
His brother Captain Howard Tomlin Hunter, Commanding ‘D’ Company 1/6th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers and his sister’s fiancé Lieutenant Arthur Richmond Garton of the same Battalion were killed in action the same day. All are Remembered on the Ypres Menin Gate Memorial.
Captain Howard Tomlin Hunter was a Medical Student and qualified in 1910 and studied surgery at St. Bartholomew’s London and in Vienna. An obituary appears in the Durham College of Medicine Gazette other details of the attack are found in the Official History of the Northumberland Fusiliers (1915 Vol 1)
George Edward Hunter is remembered in Gosforth on G9.06 G9.10 and G9.37 in Newcastle on NUT148 and Parish Notes under Masonic Roll of Honour.
