Our dog-loving, sports-mad and neurodiverse Mayor

NEW Henley Mayor Rory Hunt is not only the youngest person to serve in the role but also has an unusual consort — his dog.

Isis is an eight-year-old black greyhound that he rescued from Ireland in 2020 when she had finished her racing career.

They live together at his flat in Fair Mile where the 30-year-old sports-loving town councillor has lived since 2022, having previously lived with his mother in Hambleden.

After losing his last dog, a cream and brown King Charles cavalier spaniel called Milly, in 2019, he wanted a new four-legged companion.

Councillor Hunt says: “I absolutely loved Milly but she died quite young. That breed is susceptible to heart disease and other issues, so I knew I didn’t want to get another spaniel because the heartbreak of losing her was too painful to go through again.

“I noticed a lot of people had rescue dogs and I did some research and found greyhounds were in fact the dogs which needed rehoming most urgently.

“Based on the Greyhound Trust’s recommendation and the many chats I had with them, they came to look at the flat to see if everything was suitable, including my lifestyle, and they recommended Parish Lily.

“Because of her occupation, she wasn’t aware of her name, which was really sad, so we got to rename her.

“We decided on the name because of Anne Seymour’s sculpture of Isis on the bridge and the name’s links to the River Thames as well as my love of rowing.”

Having been used to sleeping in a concrete kennel, his new pet had to get used to home comforts such as a carpet.

Cllr Hunt says: “It took a long time, more than six months, before she was fully settled.

“When I first got her, she needed to be carried upstairs because she didn’t know what to do and she barely ate anything. It was heart-breaking to see.”

Now Isis is a “couch potato” and her owner admits to treating her like a “queen”.

“I love her to bits,” he says. “She’s very relaxed most of the time. She’s happy to be in pubs and she likes human interaction but more than anything, she loves to go for a mad run — I think she’s more cat than dog.”

Cllr Hunt, who is a civil servant working in contingency planning, was raised in Blackheath in south-east London, having been born, seven weeks premature, in Norwich while his mother, Lindsay, was visiting his grandparents.

He attended Colfe’s School until he was eight when the family moved to Sussex and he went to St Bede’s School in Hailsham.

He played both cricket and rugby for the school but was forced to quit the latter when he was 18 due to an ankle injury.

His passion for cricket started after going with his father, Ian, to watch his first match, a Test between South Africa and Pakistan, in Cape Town in 1999.

At age 15, he took up umpiring and a year later he joined Cross Arrows Cricket Club, based at Lord’s, and began working towards becoming a qualified umpire before making his debut in May 2017.

He says: “My most memorable achievement is probably meeting Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II when I was asked to umpire a game at Windsor Castle.

“An Australian junior team called Crusaders were touring and were playing the Royal XI and I was umpiring.

“About two-thirds of the Australian national team came through this squad.

“It was a combination of a lot of effort and hard work to get me to that point but it was incredibly memorable and I will forever cherish it.”

After school, he studied accounting and finance at Bangor University in North Wales and then joined the civil service.

Cllr Hunt says: “I chose my degree based on what I thought would get me a job after university rather than spending three years doing what I particularly fancied. It was a great university and I really enjoyed it.”

He learned to row at the base of Mount Snowdon, which was “incredibly pretty and incredibly cold”.

He had first come across the sport when he was 14 and attended Henley Royal Regatta with a family friend who rowed competitively.

“I absolutely loved it,” says Cllr Hunt. “The regatta has become the highlight of my year. In the last 10 years, I haven’t missed a day of it, even before I moved here.”

With his love for the river, he enjoys taking trips on the family’s slipper launch, called M L Greyhound, which is moored in Henley.

Cllr Hunt’s mother, who separated from his father in 2013, was a management consultant who worked in London for about 40 years before retiring due to long covid and came to live in Hambleden in 2019.

His father, who lives in East Sussex, worked in computer science.

The couple also have a daughter, Hannah, who is 26 and lives in Brighton.

Rory was a boy when he was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome but was well supported by his teachers, which allowed him to develop his social skills.

Mrs Hunt, 66, says: “Rory is fairly black and white, telling it how it is, not necessarily sugar-coating things, but he is focused with boundless energy.

“It was quite a challenge for the teachers because if he thought they were wrong, he would just tell them, so we had some fun parents’ evenings. Funnily enough, he was often right.

“He certainly hasn’t changed much, he has just knocked off some of the rough edges.

“He’s amazingly good at actually bringing divided parties together. I know that’s partly his job, but he is much better than I am, so you learn a lot from your children.”

At school, he had various nicknames, including Sheldon after the genius character Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory, who belittles his friends for not being as clever as him.

Cllr Hunt says: “The hardest thing I’ve overcome is probably the social difficulties that come with being autistic.

“The reason I was called Sheldon is because I was probably as bad as he is but through lots of support work and throwing myself into things, I managed to get to a point where I’m comfortable.

“I have spent my entire professional career out of the public eye but I have gone from a complete introvert to a complete extrovert. I used to stay in the classroom and get on with my work on breaks as I was much more comfortable doing that but it was something I worked on throughout the years to gain confidence.

“Sport was fantastic and I had some incredible teachers and tutors throughout school and university as well as an incredibly supportive dyslexia team and amazing friends who helped me along the way.

“Going to university and meeting lots of new people and being involved in several clubs really helped. Seeing people every day makes such a huge difference even now.”

After completing his degree, he joined an accountancy firm for three months while waiting for security clearance to join the civil service through a fast-track graduate scheme.

He qualified in 2019, becoming a member of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply.

During his time as a civil servant, he worked on Operation Yellowhammer planning for Brexit and in security and counter-terrorism. His current role is commercial crisis management.

He said: “I spent some time studying the institutions of the European Union and went over to spend some time in Strasbourg, Luxembourg and Brussels, which was really interesting and was sort of my entry into my interest in government. The transition was very natural actually.”

His father says he is “unreasonably modest” about his dedication to his work.

Mr Hunt, 68, says: “After university, Rory went around knocking on the doors of all the local accounting firms until one of them gave him a job, which was pretty cool.

“He was doing pretty well but a fast track into the civil service was too good of a prospect to turn down.

“He has been pursuing extremely high-end things, so him being Mayor of Henley kind of seems appropriate. He’s very responsible and has a real sense of service.

“I think Rory wants to serve the community and will do well.

“You walk around Henley and everyone knows Rory and he has only been here five years.

“I think he has found the place where he really wants to be and spend the rest of his life being committed to the community here.”

Mrs Hunt says her son is almost the “mirror image” of his father.

“He’s very determined and focused on what he wants to do,” she says. “Growing up, he had no interest in anything he didn’t want to do, focusing all his attention on the things he did want to do.”

As he announced immediately after his election, the Mayor plans to hold Thames Water and the Environment Agency to account for the pollution of the River Thames by sewage. This was prompted by an incident three years ago, when he became ill with cryptosporidiosis, a parasite which causes respiratory and gastrointestinal issues, after rescuing a woman from the river.

He recalls: “I was helping a boat that had got stuck in the river near Hambleden Lock and I jumped in to free the boat and must’ve just caught it from my short time in the water. It knocked me about for about two weeks. It was rather unpleasant.

“We’re in a town with lots of boats. We’ve got rowers, paddleboarders, kayakers and people who want to swim and should be able to use the river safely but at the moment it isn’t.”

Cllr Hunt also remembers a more humorous occasion when his mother fell in the water.

He says: “We were coming back from Henley Festival where we had a boat.

“Unfortunately, my mother had had one too many espresso martinis and decided to get out of the boat but forgot to use the ropes, pushing the boat out and falling between it and the bank.

“Rather than jumping in and helping, I just thought, ‘Oh, you’re okay, you’re alive and you can hold on to the bank’, so I made sure the boat was okay instead and took photos.

“It’s probably the only thing my mother will never forgive me for.

“What was even more hilarious was we had to go back down to the boat the next day to find her glasses.”

So how does he feel about the transition from civil servant to politician after being elected to Henley Town Council in 2023 as part of the ruling Henley Residents Group?

“Depending on who you talk to, I’m both poacher and gamekeeper,” says Cllr Hunt.

“My job certainly gave me an insight into how government works that I wouldn’t other have had, so it does translate.

“I can certainly sympathise with the council officers, I think, more than most councillors as I’ve seen it from the other side.

“It was [Councillor] Glen Lambert who first asked me on to the council, along with Michelle Thomas.

“I’ve known Michelle for about 10 years now and Glen for about five and it was really good to get involved. It was a good chance to serve.

“Becoming Mayor this quickly was not something I ever anticipated. This time last year I was only being sworn in as a councillor.

“It all happened so quickly. I’m lucky I had the chance to be deputy mayor first as without that, I would have been absolutely terrified.

“I’ve seen what’s involved and sat on all the committees now and I understand the offices and data too.

“I’m looking forward to the year and am confident I’ll be able to do something good.”