LITTLE OAST
RHODE COMMON
SELLING
FAVERSHAM
KENT ME13 QPS
tel: (01227) 752836
10th January, 2005
Dr. M.M Raraty
41 Bridge Down
Bndge
Canterbury
Kent CT4 SBA
Dear Dr. Raraty,
Thank you for your interest in my father and mother. l may be repeating
myself in this letter as l do not have a copy of the letter you mention. I think l
wrote that as a result of a Walk Around Bridge with Meriel Connors that was
part of the Canterbury Festival about 4 years ago.
My father was born on the 16th May, 19lO in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. His
father, Dr. Samuel John Hunter, MA, LL.D, Trinity College Dublin in about I884,
taught Classics and was Vice-Principal at the Coleraine Academical institution.
My father also attended the school and also went to Trinity having won the
Northern Ireland Classics Prize for his year. After a year studying Classics he
changed to Medicine. l believe his interest in medicine grew partly because
most of his friends were medical students. He never lost his interest in the
Classics and was able to speak and read ancient Greek - something that
impressed the waiters when we used to go to Greece but was not very useful
when it came from ordering from a menu! When he died we had the Greek for
“He is Risen” inscribed on his tombstone. Canon Perry, who was Vicar in Bridge
for many years, said that these were the words my father always greeted him
with on Easter morning.
He came to London, after he married my mother, as a Registrar at the
Hampstead Children’s Hospital. Following their stay in London he joined a
practice in Sheerness but they only stayed for about a year. They then came
to Bridge in 1939, buying their house and the practice from Dr. Wilson for, l
believe £1,800. l don’t know if the Trinity College Dublin connection was
relevant. The practice was run from our house at 24 High Street, Bridge for
many years.