Robert Hunter Memorial

Robert Hunter was born in Newburgh, Fifeshire and died at Loughton in 1897. He was lexicographer, a missionary, a geologist, and a naturalist in Aberdeen, Nagpore, Victoria Docks, Sewardstone, and Loughton. (source: RHS Bibliography).

Scottish cleric and naturalist. Worked in the Bermuda Islands and central India 1847-1855, and discovered two new minerals, hislopite and hunterite. (source: Natural History Museum)

In 1882 Hunter built his house, Forest Retreat, in Staples Road, Loughton. There is a Blue Plaque on the house - now called Forest Villa - placed by Loughton Town Council on 23 February 1997 for the centenary of his death. The inscription reads: "The Rev. Robert Hunter (1823-1897) Lexicographer and Naturalist lived here".

The memorial is located on North Boundary Road, between Memorial Avenue and Belfry Road, and reads:

TO THE MEMORY / OF THE REVEREND / ROBERT HUNTER M.A.LL.D.F.C.S. / AUTHOR OF / NUMEROUS WORKS BESIDES / THE ENCYCLOPAEDIC DICTIONARY / 

A MONUMENT OF / INDUSTRIOUS SCHOLARSHIP / BORN AT NEWBURGH FIFESHIRE / SEPT 3 1823/ DIED AT / FOREST RETREAT LOUGHTON ESSEX / FEB 5 1897 / GENTLE, LEARNED, MODEST, DEVOUT / IN SOUL HE NEVER CEASED TO BE A CHILD

 

Robert Hunter MemorialA memorial to the Reverend Robert Hunter, 1823-1897, "author of many works besides the Encyclopaedic Dictionary", in the City of London Cemetery.

Photo and text: Paul Ferris 15/03/2008