Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A poignant campaign group of three awarded to Captain P. W. Hunt, Intelligence Corps, late Royal Ulster Rifles, who was killed in action in Malaya on 29 April 1952 when the Land Rover in which he was travelling was ambushed by six enemy bandits

Defence and War Medals 1939-45; General Service 1918-62, 2 clasps, Palestine 1945-48, Malaya (Lt. P. W. Hunt, R.U.R.), good very fine (3) £800-1000

Peter William Hunt was born in Belfast in May 1926 and originally enlisted in the Queen’s Regiment in October 1944, direct from his studies at the University of London. As per his attestation papers, he had earlier served in the Ulster Home Guard.

Subsequently commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Ulster Rifles in April 1946, he served as a Platoon Commander in the 1st Battalion in Palestine prior to returning to the U.K. in early 1948. Later in the same year - in September - he transferred to the Intelligence Corps in the rank of Lieutenant, in which capacity he attended a Short Interrogation Course and was embarked for Malaya in the summer of 1950. Tragically, however, as detailed in a security forces intelligence summary, he was shot dead by bandits on 29 April 1952, while serving as a Captain in the north of the country:

‘The Intelligence Officer of North Malaya Sub-District [Hunt] was killed when at least six armed bandits ambushed the Land Rover in which he, a British W.O. and four Tamil civilians were travelling between Maxwell Hill and Taiping. Two Tamil civilians were also killed and the W.O. and the other two Tamil civilians were wounded. The bandits had obviously been lying in wait for the officer and had felled a tree across the road which stopped the vehicle.’

Hunt left a widow, Frances, whom he had married in Singapore in January 1952. He was buried in Kamunting Road Christian Cemetery, Taiping; sold with copied service records.