Commander (E) Martin Hoby HUNT RN
HMS Somali, Royal Navy

Date of birth: 5th April 1906
Date of death: 24th September 1942

Killed in action aged 36
Commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial Panel 62 Column 1
He was born at Canterbury on the 5th of April 1906 the second son of Alderman Wright Hunt JP, draper’s merchant, and Elise Phillipa Salkeld (nee Hoby) of "Culpho", Old Dover Road, Canterbury.

He was educated at the Junior King’s School from January 1917 to December 1919 before attending the Nautical College, Pangbourne from January 1920 to 1921 and the Royal Naval College Dartmouth from September 1921 which he left in May 1924.

He was appointed as a Midshipman (E) on the 15th of May 1924. He then trained at the Royal Naval Engineering College at Keysham and on the 30th of April 1927 he was promoted to Sub Lieutenant (E). In April 1928 he was posted to the aircraft carrier HMS ”Courageous”. He was promoted to Lieutenant (E) on the 16th of April 1929 and from March 1931 to 1933 he was a lecturer in engineering at the Royal Naval College Dartmouth. He was on the American Station from 1933 to1935 as Engineering Officer aboard the sloop HMS Scarborough and from 1936 to 1938 he served on the staff of the Mechanical Training Establishment at Chatham. He was awarded the King George VI Coronation Medal in 1936. On the 16th of April 1937 he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander (E) and from 1938 until the outbreak of war he served on the Royal Yacht Victoria & Albert.

He was married in 1935 to Phyllis Mary (nee Waite) of "Haylands", Feock near Truro in Cornwall.

He was promoted to Commander on the 30th of June 1941 and was mentioned in despatches on the 1st of December 1942.

At the time of his death he was serving on the Tribal Class destroyer, HMS Somali (F33), under the command of Lieutenant Commander Colin Douglas Maud DSO and Bar DSC and Bar RN. On the 13th of September 1942, HMS Somali set sail from Archangel as part of the escort for Convoy QP14, which consisted of seventeen merchant ships and their escort, bound for Loch Ewe. At 6.58 pm on the 20th of September 1942 she was hit by one of a spread of torpedoes fired by the U-Boat U-703, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Heinz Biefeld. The torpedo struck the ship in the engine room and the explosion blowing the torpedo tubes over the side and cutting all of the port side main stringers so that the ship was only held together by the upper deck and starboard side as far as the keel. The port engine fell through the bottom of the ship and the engine and gear rooms filled with water. The leaking bulkheads on either side were promptly shored up and seemed to be holding but there was no light or power except from an unreliable auxiliary diesel generator which powered the bilge pumps. The trawler, HMS Lord Middleton, took most of the surviving members of HMS Somali's crew and transferred them to other ships. Martin Hunt was one of one hundred and two men left on board, all were forbidden to go below except for any critical work. HMS Ashanti then took her crippled sister ship in tow, cruising at a slow 7 knots. The flat, calm sea was ideal for towing and for revealing periscope wakes. The tow wire parted company, but HMS Ashanti managed to rig up a new line and both ships continued to crawl to Akureyri. That evening, HMS Somali’s dynamo seized up so hand pumps were used for the bilge. These could not cope with the inflow of water so the Tribal's 17 degree list increased. With the donation of many electrical cables from other ships, an emergency power umbilical was rigged up from HMS Ashanti to another destroyer and the bilge pumps started operating again. Somali's list was reduced to 12 degrees. Power was now available for lighting and cooking as well. By the 23/24th of September, HMS Ashanti had towed HMS Somali for some 420 miles and the weather was getting worse. Somali's plates were groaning terribly. In the middle of a snow squall, observers on HMS Ashanti's bridge saw a blue flash behind them. The towline and the electric cable had snapped and a piece of the cable was hanging over HMS Ashanti's stern. Quickly, a 20-inch searchlight was brought to bear on the crippled ship. By now, HMS Somali had folded in half like a hinge with bow and stern pointing skywards. For a moment, she hung motionlessly; the deck plating then snapped without warning and her bulkheads collapsed. At 2.30am on the 25th of September 1942 her stern capsized and she sank quickly; the bow went down vertically and steadily. Eighty two members of her crew were lost with the ship.

His wife received the following telegram dated the 29th of September 1942: -

"From Admiralty. Deeply regret to inform you that your husband Commander (E) M.H. Hunt is reported missing believed killed on active service."
Junior King's School

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