Beaumont R. Hunter

Rank: Private First Class, U.S. Army

Serial Number: 32752893

Unit: 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division

Hometown: Collingswood, New Jersey

Died: April 3, 1945, Killed in Action

Awards: Purple Heart

Private First Class Beaumont R. Hunter was born in New Jersey to Herbert L. and Anna Hunter around 1923. Herbert Hunter’s father Robert was a sawyer by trade, and came with wife Elsie to Camden in the 1880s. By 1920 the Hunter family owned a home at 207 East Madison Avenue in Collingswood, NJ. Herbert Hunter was born around 1891 and was a veteran of World War I. Robert Hunter passed in the 1920s. At the time of the 1930 Census, Herbert and Anna Hunter, son Beaumont, and mother Elsie were living at the Madison Avenue address. Herbert Hunter was then working as an inspector at an iron foundry, very possibly the Camden Forge, a short drive from the Hunter family home.

Beaumont R. Hunter was a 1941 graduate of Collingswood High School. Drafted into the service, he entered the Army on March 1, 1943 at Fort Dix, NJ. He underwent his basic training at Fort Jackson, SC, where the photos below were taken. He qualified as an aviation cadet, and was sent to Miami, FL on January 1, 1944. He was then sent to Smyrna Air Base at Smyrna, TN, where he received orders transferring him to the infantry, as there was an increased need for infantry replacements after D-Day. He was reassigned to Camp Campbell, KY, and served as a mortician, while awaiting a transfer to armorer’s school at Fort Knox, KY.

PFC Hunter was transferred to the paratroopers, and trained again at Fort Jackson. He served in England and France, and was killed in action while serving with the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division, on April 3, 1945.