By repute, when he presented his one and only Budget speech to parliament he discovered that he had left the ministerial "Red Box" containing it at home. This is said to be the start of the tradition that, when a Chancellor leaves for the House of Commons on Budget Day, he shows the assembled crowd the box by holding it aloft.
Hunt was appointed to the Admiralty for Disraeli's second ministry, serving from 1874 until his death from gout in 1877.
Although he was considered competent at finance, his turn at the Admiralty was, for a long time, not much admired. Recently however, this attitude has shifted.[1]
A very heavy-set person, he is said to have been responsible for the semicircle that is cut out from the end of the table in the Admiralty Board Room.
