OLD SUTTONIAN UPDATES
Peter Hunt (1962 C) Richard Mant (1961 M)
R
eady, able and willing to take on positions of responsibility as soon as he arrived, Peter Hunt came to Sutton Valence School in September 1957 and in his first two years at the School was appointed captain of the Under 14 and Under 15 Rugby XVs, the Under 14 and 15 Cricket teams and head of the junior dayroom in St Margaret’s House. By the time he came to leave the School he was captain of Hockey, CCF House Platoon Commander, a School Prefect and the first head of Cornwallis House.
age, I came to go to bed and found I could not get in. Someone had made me an apple pie bed. A great laugh went up from the bed opposite. “Peter,” I said, “you have done this”, then proceeded to strip the bed to remake it. At that moment, the Prefect on duty came down the dorm to turn the lights off and he was none too pleased to find me not in bed and my bed clothes all over the floor. I was duly admonished by the Prefect, whereupon another great laugh went up from the bed opposite. Of course, Peter got away with it. He always did!
Peter’s skill on the games pitch was very well known, but if anything it was surpassed by his courage. In Lent Term 1962, when the University of Oxford Occasionals came to play the School’s 1st XI, the Oxford team included three Hockey Blues. On four occasions at least, the Oxford attack was thwarted by Peter alone for he was the last man to beat, apart from the Sutton Valence goalkeeper. But Peter’s courage was never more in evidence than in the last few years of his life when he fought hard and long with his debilitating illness, always supported by his loving wife, Gerry.
Peter had a great sense of humour, generally based on some witty remark he would make. Not so long ago, I had been speaking to him on the phone and then a few days later we met up, as we knew we would, at one of our Old Suttonian gatherings. Amidst the hurly-burly of the crowds, Peter and I eventually came face-to-face at the bar. “Hi Peter,” I said. “Ah” he said, “It’s Mant, isn’t it?” – and then laughed. He could always see the funny side of life.
If one spent any amount of time with Peter, one soon realised that he was a great tease in a very good-natured way. Whenever I put on my LP of Russ Conway in the dayroom at Sutton Valence, he would make a great sigh and say words to the effect of ‘Oh no, not this again!’ and then laugh. In the dormitory, Peter’s bed was opposite mine. One night, when we were about 15 or 16 years of
A qualified civil engineer, Peter worked for a number of construction companies, including Higgs and Hill,Tilbury Construction, F P Caine and Countryside Properties, before establishing his own company of builders and consultants in the 1980s. He was very good to his friends and often gave free advice with regard to proposed building projects. Always kind and considerate, he knew that I wanted to show him the boatyard in Norfolk where my wife and I keep our boat, so he drove all the way there on his own and back on the same day in order to see us - and this was in the last few months of his life. Peter was well-known in Sevenoaks and the surrounding area, but despite the lure of Sevenoaks School, Peter sent his son, James (1993 M), to Sutton Valence for he always held his old school in high regard. Peter was very involved in the life of the community and gave freely of his time and talents. He was a volunteer at Ightham Mote and he was a governor of Solefield School, for ten years, where he also refereed and umpired the boys’ matches. He enjoyed golf and was a member of Knole Park and Littlestone Golf Clubs. Of course though, his great love was Rugby and here I must mention Sevenoaks Rugby Football Club where he first played as a schoolboy in 1959 and went on to become captain of the club’s 1st XV. He was president of the club for six years and held various managerial and administrative positions. As one might expect, he was heavily involved in the building of the new clubhouse some years ago. He did so much for Sevenoaks RFC that there is a plaque on the wall in the clubhouse which says, ‘Here’s to you Peter. Thank you for being the bricks and mortar of this great club’. I cannot do better than end with the words which were spoken at Peter’s funeral by his great friend Howard Pearl: “May I say thank you, Peter, for letting us share your love of life, honest toil for the benefit of others and far more fun and good humour than we are entitled to receive from one person?”
Page 96 - The OLD Suttonian 2018