VICTOR IVAN HALL
4 July 1893 – 29 January 1920
Regimental no 73160
Victor HALL was born in Sydney, NSW, the first child of Mary (or sometimes May) née LAWTON or LAWSON and Frederick Charles Hall. Neither was a native of Sydney. She had been born in Melbourne while he spent his early years in London. The couple married in Sydney in 1889. Two years after Victor’s birth, his brother Roland was born and in the same year, the family moved to Wellington. Frederick found work as a signwriter, an occupation that he pursued for many years. More siblings followed: a sister Isellen, born in 1897; an unnamed brother who survived just 1 day in 1899; and another brother, Clement, born in 1901.
In their early days in Wellington, the children attended local schools. Initially, they were living at 41 Tasman Street and began their schooling at the Mt Cook Infants’ School. Victor went from there to the nearby Mt Cook Boys School in 1901, and then to Clyde Quay School the following year when the family moved to Pirie Street on the slopes on Mt Victoria. According to his Army personnel file, Victor left school after achieving the Fourth Educational Standard.
Victor’s name appears on the Army Reserve Roll for 1916 as one of those in the 1st Division, Wellington District. This roll was compiled in September 1916. Aged 23, he was then listed as living at 77 Pirie Street (and therefore presumably with his parents) and his occupation was recorded as ‘driver’. His attestation to serve shows that he subsequently moved. In that document, which he completed on 17 October 1917, he was working as a station hand and living with his employer, a Mr Trotter, in Santoft, near Marton. Richard Henry Trotter, born in 1860, was a sheepfarmer registered on the Rangitikei electoral roll from 1914 onwards.
At the time of his attestation, Victor recorded that he had previously been medically examined for service in the N Z Expeditionary Force, in ‘about Aug 1915’. Asked if he had ever been rejected as unfit for the military forces, he answered ‘Yes (leg)’. During the medical examination, the medical officer answered the question ‘Have you had any illnesses?’ with the comment ‘No except bleeding’ and in the space for Remarks, wrote: ‘Nothing the matter with right knee – imagination.’
That second examination took place in October 1917. Six weeks later, Victor was the subject of a further examination by a Medical Board assembled at Tauherenikau Camp. The Board identified two disabilities. The first was haemophilia and the second, ‘limitation of movements of thigh’. There is a separate case sheet note on Victor’s personnel file which records some further detail: ‘Bled for 4 wks in Hospital after extraction of tooth. Was in Hospital 7 weeks. Had teeth ground down owing to fear of bleeding if extracted’.
Haemophilia is an incurable genetic disorder where the blood has a severely reduced ability to clot, so that injury or surgery, as in Victor’s case, can lead to prolonged and excessive bleeding. Not surprisingly, the Board recommended that Victor be discharged, and on 4 December 1917, less than two months after his attestation, Victor was given a Certificate of Leave in lieu of Discharge.
It seems that Victor did not return to the Rangitikei to work as a station hand. In the 1919 electoral roll, he is shown as living in Whakatane as a labourer working at the local freezing works. His father was on the same roll, in his case working as a taxi driver. The roll was signed by the registrar of electors on 30 June 1919 and there was no indication in the supplementary roll issued later in the year that Victor and his father had left the area. At some point during that year, however, Victor must have moved to Taranaki because on 29 January 1920, he died at New Plymouth Hospital. The death notice in the Evening Post on 30 January describes him as ‘beloved eldest son of Mr and Mrs F C Hall, 77, Pirie Street, Wellington, in his 26th year.’ He is named in the records of the New Plymouth Cemetery as Frederick Victor Ivan Hall, and he is described as a sawmiller, of Wellington. He was buried in the Baptist section of the cemetery.
The death certificate also gives his occupation as ‘sawmiller’. It identifies two causes of death: the first, described as ‘lifelong’, is haemophilia; while the second, lasting for 14 days, was epistaxis (or nosebleed) followed by cardiac failure.
Victor’s mother died in Wellington in 1931, and his father in 1932. Both were buried in the Public section of Karori Cemetery.
Although Victor’s connection to Wellington is clear, no evidence has been found linking him or any of his family directly with Mitchelltown school or the broader community of Aro Valley. Perhaps his association with schools in Te Aro was the tie, or perhaps he worked in the area before he left Wellington for a job as a station hand near Marton.
It is also possible that Victor Ivan Hall is not the person identified on the Aro Valley memorial as ‘V Hall’. Army personnel files held by Archives New Zealand include two other soldiers with names that might fit although on examination, both have been ruled out. One is Victor G A Hall who was living in Mt Eden when he enlisted, but he returned from the war and lived until 1973. The other was Vincent J B Hall, a teacher living and working at New Plymouth Boys High School. He embarked with the Main Body of the NZEF but died of gunshot wounds in the Dardanelles in June 1915. He also has no Wellington connection. Before starting work in New Plymouth he lived with his parents in Auckland, and he is remembered in memorial plaques at the New Plymouth Boys’ High School, St Mark’s Anglican Church in Remuera and St David’s Church in Khyber Pass Road, Auckland.
Researched and written by Max Kerr
4 July 1893 – 29 January 1920
Regimental no 73160
Victor HALL was born in Sydney, NSW, the first child of Mary (or sometimes May) née LAWTON or LAWSON and Frederick Charles Hall. Neither was a native of Sydney. She had been born in Melbourne while he spent his early years in London. The couple married in Sydney in 1889. Two years after Victor’s birth, his brother Roland was born and in the same year, the family moved to Wellington. Frederick found work as a signwriter, an occupation that he pursued for many years. More siblings followed: a sister Isellen, born in 1897; an unnamed brother who survived just 1 day in 1899; and another brother, Clement, born in 1901.
In their early days in Wellington, the children attended local schools. Initially, they were living at 41 Tasman Street and began their schooling at the Mt Cook Infants’ School. Victor went from there to the nearby Mt Cook Boys School in 1901, and then to Clyde Quay School the following year when the family moved to Pirie Street on the slopes on Mt Victoria. According to his Army personnel file, Victor left school after achieving the Fourth Educational Standard.
Victor’s name appears on the Army Reserve Roll for 1916 as one of those in the 1st Division, Wellington District. This roll was compiled in September 1916. Aged 23, he was then listed as living at 77 Pirie Street (and therefore presumably with his parents) and his occupation was recorded as ‘driver’. His attestation to serve shows that he subsequently moved. In that document, which he completed on 17 October 1917, he was working as a station hand and living with his employer, a Mr Trotter, in Santoft, near Marton. Richard Henry Trotter, born in 1860, was a sheepfarmer registered on the Rangitikei electoral roll from 1914 onwards.
At the time of his attestation, Victor recorded that he had previously been medically examined for service in the N Z Expeditionary Force, in ‘about Aug 1915’. Asked if he had ever been rejected as unfit for the military forces, he answered ‘Yes (leg)’. During the medical examination, the medical officer answered the question ‘Have you had any illnesses?’ with the comment ‘No except bleeding’ and in the space for Remarks, wrote: ‘Nothing the matter with right knee – imagination.’
That second examination took place in October 1917. Six weeks later, Victor was the subject of a further examination by a Medical Board assembled at Tauherenikau Camp. The Board identified two disabilities. The first was haemophilia and the second, ‘limitation of movements of thigh’. There is a separate case sheet note on Victor’s personnel file which records some further detail: ‘Bled for 4 wks in Hospital after extraction of tooth. Was in Hospital 7 weeks. Had teeth ground down owing to fear of bleeding if extracted’.
Haemophilia is an incurable genetic disorder where the blood has a severely reduced ability to clot, so that injury or surgery, as in Victor’s case, can lead to prolonged and excessive bleeding. Not surprisingly, the Board recommended that Victor be discharged, and on 4 December 1917, less than two months after his attestation, Victor was given a Certificate of Leave in lieu of Discharge.
It seems that Victor did not return to the Rangitikei to work as a station hand. In the 1919 electoral roll, he is shown as living in Whakatane as a labourer working at the local freezing works. His father was on the same roll, in his case working as a taxi driver. The roll was signed by the registrar of electors on 30 June 1919 and there was no indication in the supplementary roll issued later in the year that Victor and his father had left the area. At some point during that year, however, Victor must have moved to Taranaki because on 29 January 1920, he died at New Plymouth Hospital. The death notice in the Evening Post on 30 January describes him as ‘beloved eldest son of Mr and Mrs F C Hall, 77, Pirie Street, Wellington, in his 26th year.’ He is named in the records of the New Plymouth Cemetery as Frederick Victor Ivan Hall, and he is described as a sawmiller, of Wellington. He was buried in the Baptist section of the cemetery.
The death certificate also gives his occupation as ‘sawmiller’. It identifies two causes of death: the first, described as ‘lifelong’, is haemophilia; while the second, lasting for 14 days, was epistaxis (or nosebleed) followed by cardiac failure.
Victor’s mother died in Wellington in 1931, and his father in 1932. Both were buried in the Public section of Karori Cemetery.
Although Victor’s connection to Wellington is clear, no evidence has been found linking him or any of his family directly with Mitchelltown school or the broader community of Aro Valley. Perhaps his association with schools in Te Aro was the tie, or perhaps he worked in the area before he left Wellington for a job as a station hand near Marton.
It is also possible that Victor Ivan Hall is not the person identified on the Aro Valley memorial as ‘V Hall’. Army personnel files held by Archives New Zealand include two other soldiers with names that might fit although on examination, both have been ruled out. One is Victor G A Hall who was living in Mt Eden when he enlisted, but he returned from the war and lived until 1973. The other was Vincent J B Hall, a teacher living and working at New Plymouth Boys High School. He embarked with the Main Body of the NZEF but died of gunshot wounds in the Dardanelles in June 1915. He also has no Wellington connection. Before starting work in New Plymouth he lived with his parents in Auckland, and he is remembered in memorial plaques at the New Plymouth Boys’ High School, St Mark’s Anglican Church in Remuera and St David’s Church in Khyber Pass Road, Auckland.
Researched and written by Max Kerr