Roy Hunter is coming home after 101 years

He was just one among perhaps half-a-million men and boys consumed by the killing fields of Passchendaele. And now he’s coming home in spirit.

The name of an Australian-born World War One soldier, Roy Hunter, is to be inscribed on the Manly War Memorial - 101 years after his death during the tragic Third Battle of Ypres of October 1917.

Roy’s name will be the 485th to be added to the World War One era memorial.

Roy was one of seven Hunter brothers, all of Manly, who two took part either in the Second Boer War or else who fought in World War One.

Of the six Hunter brothers who joined up in World War One, three enlisted in the Australian army, while the other three enlisted in the New Zealand army – including Roy.

At 24-years-of-age when he died, Roy was the youngest of the Hunter boys.

During World War One, three of his brothers (Charles, Arthur and Sidney) were seriously wounded. They survived to return home.

Roy, however, was buried near where he fell and, like so many thousands of others, his body was never recovered.

One can hardly begin to imagine the anguish of the Hunter boys’ widowed mother Emma through all this, as she waited patiently at their home on Pittwater Road.

Roy’s name is listed on the Commemorative Roll in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Now, as part of this year’s Northern Beaches Council’s 2018 Remembrance Day Service, a dedication and blessing ceremony for Roy’s name will be held in his home-town, too.

Several members of his extended family will be in attendance at the service which will start at 10.45am, Sunday, 11 November at the Manly War Memorial, corner of The Corso and Belgrave Street, Manly, directly opposite Manly Ferry Wharf.

The public is welcome to attend and lay a wreath at the service.

Northern Beaches Remembrance Day services