Archibald Robert (Bobby) Hunter died as a result of diphtheria at Scarborough Street, Southport, Queensland, on 26 April 1921 at the age of ‘4 years 9 months and 20 days’. Born in South Brisbane on 6 July 1916 at Mrs Green’s Private Nursing Home, St Alban’s, Russell Street, South Brisbane, he was the son of James (a timber contractor) and Susannah (née Smith) Hunter who were living at that time in Villa Street, off Ipswich Road, Annerley.
 

Bobby’s paternal grandfather was John Hunter (b. Cumbrae, Bute, Scotland, 10 September 1828), the son of Henry and Agnes Hunter; and his paternal grandmother was Mary Ann Fitzgibbon (1837-1873, b. Ennis, County Clare, Ireland), the daughter of James and Bridget (née Hanran) Fitzgibbon. They were married in Brisbane on 10 October 1853.

Bobby Hunter’s maternal grandfather was Samuel Smith (b. Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, 29 December 1850), the son of Samuel and Mary (née Stone) Smith; and his maternal grandmother was Agnes Jack (b. Barrhead, Scotland, about 1853), the daughter of Robert and Mary (née Patterson) Jack. They were married at Logan on 19 October 1871.

Bobby’s father and mother, James and Susannah (née Smith) Hunter, were married in Buccan, Queensland, on 31 December 1894. In addition to Archibald Robert, they became the parents of: Henry Samuel (b. 20 June 1896, known as Harry; d. 30 May 1979), Petterer Gladys (b. Veresdale 23 March 1898, known as Gladys or Glad), John (b. 28 January 1900, known as Jack; d. 10 August 1927), Agnes May (b. 11 May 1902), Mary Ann (b. 27 January 1904), Susan Vera (b. 16 March 1906; d. 12 July 1910), Beatrice Maud (b. 21 July 1907, known as Beat), James Fitzgibbon (b. 30 July 1909, known as Jim; d. 18 June 1988), Elizabeth Jean (b. 7 December 1911, known as Jean), Dorothy Jessie (b. 8 July 1914, known as Doss; d. 2004), and Hazel (b. 15 May 1921). Details of the children’s marriages are endnoted.
 

After his untimely death, Bobby Hunter’s remains were laid to rest in the Cooper’s Plains Cemetery on 29 April 1921 in a service presided over by the Reverend F North of the Congregational Church in the presence of official witnesses, Alex W Neil and J Abercrombie. It was his sister, Gladys Hunter, of Bell’s Paddock, Rocklea, who informed the authorities of his passing.

James Hunter, the son of John and Mary Ann (née Fitzgibbon) Hunter, was born in Pimpama, Queensland, and died at Cribb Island (now part of Brisbane’s airport) on 26 April 1938. His burial in the Mount Gravatt Cemetery (mon. 4E 9 628A) took place on the following day.

Susannah Hunter, who was living in Lilly Street, Sherwood at the time of her death, passed away at the advanced age of 95 years on 21 December 1969. Two days later, after a service in the Presbyterian Church of St Giles, Nathan Terrace, Yeerongpilly, she was laid to rest beside her husband. In the same plot lie the ashes of her daughter Elizabeth Jean (Mrs Wills) and the remains of her daughter Dorothy Jessie Hunter. who was buried on 2 June 2004, aged 89 years. The latter, Doss as she was known, did not marry and supported her mother throughout her life.

James’s father, John Hunter, died in Brisbane on 18 March 1873; and his mother, Mary Ann, who outlived her husband by many years, passed away at Wellington Point on 30 October 1917. Her interment took place two days later in the Toowong Cemetery.

For the record, the children of Bobby’s paternal grandparents, John and Mary Ann Hunter, his uncles and aunts, were as follows: Agnes (b. 1855, not in QPI); Henry (b. 30 May 1857; d. 1931); Mary Ann (b. 27 July 1859); Elizabeth Jemima (b. 3 October 1861; d. 19 December 1941); James (b. 23 January 1864); Unknown (b. about 1866); John Stewart (b. 27 September 1867; d. 21 October 1882); Janet (b. 31 May 1870; d. 20 August 1934); and Peter Fordyce (b. 5 April 1873; d. 2 May 1890).
 

At the time of his death on 18 June 1988 James Fitzgibbon Hunter was living in Lutzow Street, Weller’s Hill, a Brisbane suburb. His ashes were deposited in God’s Acre after his cremation in the Mount Thompson Crematorium on the afternoon of 22 June 1988.

The following account of her father’s life was written by his daughter Julie (Mrs Harcourt):

James Hunter (Jim) was born in Nanango. He was the first of Susannah Hunter’s children to be born in a hospital. He started school at Yeronga State School. He used to ride his horse in from Rocklea until the family moved into Villa Street in Annerley; but, along with the rest of the family, he lived in a range of places around south-east Queensland depending on his father’s interest in horses and cattle. Places in which they lived that held special meaning to him were Peak Crossing and Yuleba. As a 12-year-old, he brought a mob of horses on his own from Yuleba to Rocklea. As a boy he used to enjoy spending time with his cousin Jim Smith, particularly riding their horses from Logan Village across the Logan River to Park Ridge. As a child he broke his elbow in a fall from a horse. The injury prevented him from being accepted in both the army and the air force in World War II.

He attended Brisbane State High School; but on the death of his brother Jack at age 27, he was withdrawn from school in his Junior year to help Jack’s wife Dorothy, who had one child and was pregnant with another, run their farm at Nanango. He was a good runner and was about to compete in the Queensland schoolboy athletics championships when he was withdrawn from school. Education was valued in the Hunter family; so this was a significant sacrifice (although he never spoke about it in these terms).

He spent some time working at the forestry in Benarkin before moving to Brisbane. He had hoped to be able to stay on the land but the impact of death duties after his father’s death got in the way of this dream. During the war he drove tankers taking petrol to the ‘petrol dumps’ that were  hidden on Mt Coot-tha in case the Japanese attacked. He later worked at Archerfield aerodrome and then at Eagle farm aerodrome, refuelling the aeroplanes. Despite living all of his married life in Brisbane he had an abiding love of horses and the bush that stayed with him throughout his life.