In 1880 he was serving as a sergeant with the Waikato Cavalry Volunteers when he was elected to the rank of sub-lieutenant (Gazetted January 1881). When he was rejected for service in South Africa during the Anglo Boer War he crossed the Tasman and enlisted with the New South Wales Bushmen (service no 96). While in South Africa William transferred to the Imperial Light Horse (rank Scout Corporal, service no 3106) and apparently returned to England with that regiment. During WW1 he joined the staff at the Thames Military Hospital before returning to New Zealand in 1916. He died in Auckland in 1927.

The New Zealand Herald published his obituary on 10th August 1927.

"The death has occurred of Mr. William Francis Hunt, a veteran volunteer soldier and an old resident of New Zealand. Mr. Hunt was born in York, England, in 1843. He came to New Zealand with his parents in the ship Carogoon in 1865, and settled in the Mangonui district, where he engaged in farming for several years.

Mr. Hunt had an extensive and varied military career. In 1876 he joined the Hamilton troop of the Waikato Volunteer Cavalry, with which he served, for a period. On the outbreak of the South African War, he endeavoured to enlist in New Zealand, but was not accepted as he was over the prescribed age limit. He thereupon went to Australia and joined the Bushmen's Contingent. He saw considerable service and was later transferred to the Imperial Light Horse Regiment as a scout. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, and the Queen's and King's South African Medals. At the conclusion of the war he remained in South Africa, where he engaged for a number of-years in mining and farming pursuits. Mr. Hunt volunteered for active service with the English forces on the outbreak of the Great War, but was rejected. He then joined the staff of the Thames Military Hospital, London, and finally returned to New Zealand, in 1916. Since 1925 he had been an inmate of Veterans' Home, Mount Roskill. The funeral will take place at Waikaraka cemetery this afternoon."