Fonds F0683 - Herbert Hunt fonds

Herbert William Hunt served in the artillery for the British Army during the First World War while his wife, Jessica, served in the Voluntary Aid Detachment. Hunt and his wife tried to build an agrarian life for themselves in England for six year after the war, without success. Disappointed, Hunt applied to the 3,000 Family Settlement Scheme, a joint initiative by the governments of the United Kingdom and Canada to resettle British families on farmland in central and western Canada. Canada’s Department of Immigration and Colonization accepted Hunt’s application to participate in the Settlement Scheme in March 1926. By the end of May, Hunt and his wife began their migration to their settlement, which was located north of Spruce Lake and east of St.Walburg in Saskatchewan. After completing the probationary apprenticeship of one year, during which time new settlers were required to demonstrate their fitness by working as farm hands, Hunt purchased 160 acres of farmland from the Soldier Settlement Board. On this farm, Hedgerows, Hunt primarily cultivated wheat. Hunt and his wife struggled to acclimatize to Canada, the harsh prairie weather in particular. His crops also suffered under frost and drought. The family’s financial hardship was compounded by the low market prices of grains during the depression. After spending a challenging decade in Saskatchewan, Hunt and his wife returned to England in 1936. Hunt died in Benfleet, Essex, England in 1985.