[3][4] Hunt's mother, Laura Mary, was the daughter of Colonel Sir James Buckingham, secretary of the Indian Tea Association.

[5] As a result of contracting diphtheria whilst at school, he is believed to be one of the last cases in England to have his tonsils painted with cocaine and then removed by guillotine.

[2] By 1937, he took a job with Dr George Cregan in the practice at 83 Sloane Street, following which, in 1941, he married Elisabeth Ernestine, daughter of architect Norman Evill, FRIBA,[6] chief draughtsman for Edwin Lutyens from 1899 to 1902;[7] they had five children: twin sons who became general practitioners, a son who died in childhood, and two daughters.

[1][5] He joined the Royal Air Force as a neurologist at the onset of war and by the end of the conflict had reached the rank of wing commander.

The Royal Society of Medicine's GP section was established in 1950, following a case put to its council by Dr. G. M. Kerr and Dr. Geoffrey Barber and granted on the understanding that it would deal with matters of education only and not politics.

Hunt also recalled Barber and Sir Wilson Jameson, chatting outside Oxford's Mitre pub and hatching a plan to form a College.

[9] At one stage, the question as to whether a "college" or "faculty" be pursued, Hunt had sought the opinion of his cousin, Lord Horder, the royal physician.

[9] Following the emphasis on the plight of GPs in the Cohen report, there appeared an urgency to form a college and Hunt questioned the role of the new section of general practice of the RSM.

[9][10] Along with other concerned GPs, Hunt offered the idea for a "college" in a letter to the General Practice Review Committee of the British Medical Association (BMA).

[12] A steering committee was formed, with members including former Minister of Health (1943–1945), Sir Henry Willink, who agreed to be chairman.

[8] Hunt was the main medical officer for the Provincial Mutual Life Assurance Association, and the Royal Air Force took him as an honorary consultant in general practice.

He was the first general practitioner to become a life peer, being created Baron Hunt of Fawley in the County of Buckingham on 25 June 1973.

In 1980, he received the gold medal of the British Medical Association and became an honorary fellow of Green College, University of Oxford.

[17] Jonathan Hunt's daughter Marina is the wife of broadcaster Ben Fogle; her sister Olivia, formerly a girlfriend of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge,[18] married Nicholas Wilkinson, son of Dame Heather Hallett.

[19][20][21] Established in 1992 to commemorate the College's 40th anniversary, the RCGP awards the John Hunt Lectureship to someone who is not medically qualified.