Elinor Jessie Marie Hallé (1856 – 18 May 1926) was a British sculptor and inventor. She is known for her work on medals and for devising the idea of creating plaster casts as splints for broken limbs during the First World War.

Life

Halle was born in Manchester in 1856. Her parents were Sir Charles Hallé and his first wife, Marie. Her father started the Hallé Orchestra. Her French mother died in 1866. Her older brother was the painter Charles Edward Hallé (born c. 1847). Hallé studied sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art under

Alphonse Legros Alphonse Legros (8 May 1837 – 8 December 1911) was a French, later British, painter, etcher, sculptor, and medallist. He moved to London in 1863 and later took British citizenship. He was important as a teacher in the British etching rev ...

. She was a member of the group of medallists known as the Slade Girls. Her medal of

Cardinal Newman John Henry Newman (21 February 1801 – 11 August 1890) was an English theologian, academic, intellectual, philosopher, polymath, historian, writer, scholar and poet, first as an Anglican priest and later as a Catholic priest and cardi ...

won top prize at the 1885 International Inventions Exhibition. Hallé did the modelling for a number of important awards and this included the 1890 Royal Geographical Society Medal. During the First World War Halle volunteered with the

Surgical Requisites Association Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pa ...

. The association supplied medical dressings and had been created by Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild.

Anne Acheson Anne Crawford Acheson (5 August 1882 – 13 March 1962) was a British-Irish sculptor. She and Elinor Hallé invented plaster casts for soldier's broken limbs. Acheson exhibited at the Royal Academy and internationally. She was awarded the ...

and Halle were both sculptors and they witnessed soldiers returning from the front with broken limbs held together with only wooden splints and basic bandages, it was suggested that taking a plaster cast of the limb. Then when the cast had hardened they could wrap it with papier-mache. It could then be placed on the broken limb whilst the bones knitted. This was inspired by the plaster of Paris in use in their sculptural work. The anatomically correct papier-mache splint reduced the healing time while supporting the broken bone. The idea of using plaster of Paris was adopted and refined over the years and is still in use today by the medical profession. She was awarded a CBE after the war. She died in 1926.

Works

* Cardinals Manning Medal * Cardinal Mercier Medal * Cardinal Newman Medal * the Royal Geographical Society Emin Pasha Relief Expedition Medal, 1890 * A medal for her father. * She made the collar for the Royal Victorian Order * the insignia of the Order of the British Empire and the order of the

Companions of Honour The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded on 4 June 1917 by King George V as a reward for outstanding achievements. Founded on the same date as the Order of the British Empire, it is sometimes ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hallé, Elinor 1856 births 1926 deaths 19th-century British women artists Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Artists from Manchester British sculptors