Noel Bramwell Hall 1891 - 1916

Noel Bramwell Hall was born on 23rd December 1891. He was the son of Frederick Jackson Hall, a solicitor’s clerk, and Florence Jane Hall, who originated from Tynemouth and was the daughter of a coal merchant. They married in Christ Church, North Shields, in 1885. The couple were living in Manor House, Shincliffe, from at least 1894 when Mr Hall is featured in Whellan’s Directory of that year. They had a son, Frederick Jackson Hall Jr, who was born in 1887. He attended his grandfather’s (James Hall 1836-1907) private school in Old Elvet in 1901, as did Noel. It appears that FJ Hall Jr emigrated to Canada and is featured in the 1930 census from there, living in Montreal.

The 1901 census has Noel and his mother residing with the Stationmaster of Sherburn Hospital. This was Henry Spraggon. His wife was Jessie (nee Scaife), daughter of the landlord, William Scaife, of the Seven Stars in Shincliffe. All parties would have known each other from Shincliffe having lived only a few yards apart. Mrs Hall is described as “Living partly on her own means”. FJ Hall Sr was fighting in the Boer War at this time.

Noel Bramwell Hall was sent to Scorton Grammar School, nr. Richmond, North Yorkshire. It remained a private school until the late twentieth century. The building still exists and has been converted into flats. Following his education, Noel worked for Jacob Frederick Hiller, a “naturalised” German who ran a music shop in Saddler Street as well as being a piano tuner. It is this location he lists as his place of employment in the 1911 census when he is residing in Manor House with his grandmother, Elizabeth, and two of his aunts, Marian, and Rosa. Mr Hiller attended James Hall’s funeral in Shincliffe in 1907. The two men would have been on friendly terms since Mr Hall was an enthusiastic promoter of music concerts in his school and the wider community. In 1912, Noel decided to carve out a new life for himself in Canada as a farmer. In January 1914, his Aunt Marian, daughter of James Hall, the Headmaster, and a prominent member of the Primrose League, an organisation devoted to the spreading of Conservative values, died suddenly following a bout of double pneumonia. Her funeral attracted a large gathering, including the industrialists Laurie Mackay (carpet manufacturer) and George Blagdon (leather manufacturer), both of whom lived in Wood View. She is buried in St. Mary’s in Shincliffe.

Following the outbreak of The Great War with Germany in 1914, he enlisted with the Canadian Forces in November of that year and returned to Europe. He gave as his next of kin his aunt Rosa Beatrice Hall, his grandmother deemed too elderly and his Aunt Marian having died earlier in the year. He was wounded in action in October 1915 but was soon back at the front and entered a trench mortar battery. He was promoted for his bravery when carrying his fellow soldiers from the field while under heavy shell fire.

It is a grim irony that Corporal Hall, as he became, had his career and life cut short by an accidental exploding shell in his own trench rather than from an enemy bullet or bomb. The incident occurred on 26th October 1916. In a further irony, news of his death was received in Durham on the day of his grandmother’s death on 9th November 1916.

He is buried in Loos-en-Gohelle, Departement du Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France.