Nicholas Hunt

Hunt was born on 7 November 1930[1] in Hawarden, Flintshire, the younger son[2] of Brigadier John Montgomerie Hunt of the 5th Battalion, 2nd Punjab Regiment, Indian Army[3] and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Walter Baldwyn Yates CBE.[2] The Hunt family were landed gentry, of Boreatton, Baschurch, Shropshire. A cousin was Agnes Hunt, pioneer of orthopaedic nursing.[4]

Hunt was educated at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.[1] After graduating, he gained a commission in the Royal Navy and was promoted to lieutenant on 31 July 1952.[5] He served as Assistant Private Secretary to Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent from 1959[6][7] to 1962.[1] Promoted to lieutenant commander on 17 August 1960,[8] he was posted to the Directorate of Naval Plans at the Ministry of Defence in 1966.[9]

Hunt became executive officer of HMS Ark Royal[6] in 1969 and was then given command of the amphibious warfare ship HMS Intrepid in February 1974[10] before attending the Royal College of Defence Studies later that year.[1] He went on to be Director of Naval Plans at the Ministry of Defence in August 1976[11] and captain of the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth in October 1978.[12] Appointed aide-de-camp to the Queen on 7 July 1980[13] (which post he held until 7 January 1981),[14] he became Flag Officer, Second Flotilla in October 1980.[1] He was promoted to rear admiral on 7 January 1981[14] and became Director-General, Naval Manpower and Training in November 1981.[1]

Hunt was promoted to vice admiral on 6 December 1983,[15] on appointment as Flag Officer Scotland and Northern Ireland,[6] and to admiral on 25 June 1985,[16] on appointment as Commander-in-Chief Fleet[6] and Allied Commander-in-Chief Channel and Eastern Atlantic.[1] He retired from the Navy on 26 July 1987.[17]

Hunt was Deputy Managing Director at Eurotunnel from 1987 to 1989[1] and Director-General of the Chamber of Shipping[6] from 1991 to 1997.[1] He also held part-time appointments including Chairman of the South West Surrey District Health Authority from 1990 to 1995,[1] Chairman of Nuffield Hospitals from 1996 to 2001,[1] Commissioner of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission from 1988 to 1992[1] and Chairman of Chatham Historic Dockyard from 1998 to 2005.[18] He also became Chairman of Ferrero UK Ltd in 2005.[1]

Hunt was known to be a strong supporter of the nuclear deterrent[19] and was Chairman of the Royal Navy Club of 1765 & 1785 (United 1889).[20] He became Deputy Lieutenant to the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey on 23 January 1996.[21]

Hunt was appointed Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom in 1994,[22] holding that post until 1997 when he became Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom[23] and Lieutenant of the Admiralty,[1] positions that he held until 2001.[24]

He died at his home on 25 October 2013 at the age of 82.[25]

In 1966, he married Meriel Eve Givan, daughter of Major Henry C. Givan of the Isle of Wight,[2] formerly of Rangoon.[26] Together they had two sons (the elder of whom is the former Foreign Secretary and the present Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt)[27] and one daughter.[6] Lady Hunt died in 2022.[28]

On 20 July 1961, Hunt was made a Member of the Fourth Class of the Royal Victorian Order.[29] Members of this class were renamed Lieutenants in 1984 and henceforth used the post-nominals LVO. Hunt was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1985 New Year Honours.[30] He was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the 1987 New Year Honours.[31]

Hunt was made a Freeman of the City of London in 1988.[1]