BIO

Myponga-born John Hunt played his one senior game early in the 1909 season, which would end disappointingly for Norwood with the 8.18 to 5.8 defeat by West Adelaide in the grand final.

Aged 19, John was named in the Norwood squad for the opening round but he and Charles Perry failed to make the cut for the team which beat West Torrens by 10 points.  When John made his debut at Norwood Oval a week later, Norwood proved no match for North Adelaide, which romped home 8.14 to 2.5.

John enjoyed better luck with St Bartholomew’s when, as a member of the first city team to visit Angaston, he celebrated a 9.9 to 5.8 victory over the locals on 5 June 1909.

Born on 22 December 1889 to John Hunt and his wife Emily, née Cameron, John had siblings Elizabeth, Lucy and Archie.  He married Ruby Sophie McLaren at the Myponga Methodist Church on 9 January 1918.  They would have four children, Emilie, Maureen, Norman and Kevin.

John was a Solomontown butcher in 1929 when he bought for 30 shillings a derelict weatherboard house which he demolished, using the wood and iron to extend his own dwelling and build a fence.  It turned out that the vendor, a James Allen, had sold the house without the knowledge of the owner.  Allen faced a false pretences charge but the case was dismissed after he successfully pleaded that he had believed his father-in-law, who had lived in the house, was the owner (The Register 8 September 1929 p 7).

John Hunt died on 15 March 1962 and is buried at the Port Pirie Cemetery.

P. Robins, D. Cox July 2021