[1][2][3] Hunt was born at 2 Upper Byron Place, Clifton, Bristol, on 28 June 1909, into a musical family.

Among his father's friends were Sir Walford Davies, Edmund Fellowes and Eric Marshall Johnson.

He took his diploma in 1930 but continued to attend the college until 1933; he took further lessons, and tried without success to obtain a BMus degree from Durham University.

In 1937 he began working at the London branch of music publishers Schott and Co. in Great Marlborough Street.

His papers, together with those of his father, Hubert Hunt, and his sister Enid, former archivist of the Bristol Madrigal Society, were donated by Hunt's daughter to the Centre for the History of Music in Britain, the Empire and the Commonwealth in the music department of the University of Bristol.