John Hunter (Royal Navy officer)

John Hunter (29 August 1737 – 13 March 1821) was an officer of the Royal Navy, who succeeded Arthur Phillip as the second governor of New South Wales, Australia and served as such from 1795 to 1800.

Both a sailor and a scholar, he explored the Parramatta River as early as 1788, and was the first to surmise that Tasmania might be an island. As governor, he tried to combat serious abuses by the military in the face of powerful local interests led by John MacArthur. Hunter's name is commemorated in historic locations such as Hunter Valley and Hunter Street, Sydney.

Family and early life

John Hunter was born in Leith, Scotland, the son of William Hunter, a captain in the merchant service, and Helen, née Drummond, daughter of J. Drummond and niece of George Drummond, several-time lord provost of Edinburgh. As a boy Hunter was sent to live with an uncle in the town of Lynn in Norfolk, where, and also at Edinburgh, he received the classical education of the time. Hunter was sent to University of Edinburgh, but soon left it to join the navy as a captain's servant to Thomas Knackston in HMS Grampus in May 1754. In 1755 he was enrolled as able seaman on HMS Centaur, became a midshipman and served on HMS Union and then HMS Neptune. While aboard Neptune he was present at the Raid on Rochefort in 1757, and afterwards served during cruises off Brest in 1758 and the capture of Quebec in 1759. Serving aboard Neptune at this time as her first lieutenant was John Jervis, who became an acquaintance of Hunter.

John Hunter (screenwriter)

John Hunter (1911–????) is an American-born screenwriter. He originally worked primarily in Britain, but in 1982 his screenplay for the Canadian western film The Grey Fox won a Genie Award. His father was T. Hayes Hunter.

Selected filmography

References

External links

John Hunter (Northern Ireland politician)

John Hunter is a former Ulster unionist politician.

An active member of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), Hunter wrote A Brief History of the Ulster Unionist Council in 1993. Hunter was close to David Trimble and, unenthusiastic about Jim Molyneaux's leadership of the party, he backed Trimble's successful candidacy in the September 1995 leadership election. However, he rapidly became unhappy with Trimble's willingness to reconsider the party's views on the Irish republican movement. He accompanied Trimble to a meeting with John Major in June 1996, at which Major announced that he intended to ask George J. Mitchell to chair talks relating to the Northern Ireland peace process.

While Hunter occasionally attended the talks, which led to the Good Friday Agreement, he did not form part of the main talks team. He was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum in South Antrim. He opposed the Agreement, and although he was selected as a party candidate for the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1998, but he was not elected.