Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Frederick Henry Hall, 1st Baronet, (7 October 1864 – 28 April 1932) was a British businessman and politician. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he was active in recruiting men for '

Kitchener's Army The New Army, often referred to as Kitchener's Army or, disparagingly, as Kitchener's Mob, was an (initially) all-volunteer portion of the British Army formed in the United Kingdom from 1914 onwards following the outbreak of hostilities in the Fi ...

Early life

Hall was born on 7 October 1864, the son of Herbert William Hall, JP for

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. Frederick was educated privately and became a member of

Lloyd's of London Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is an insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gov ...

in 1896 and the

Baltic Exchange The Baltic Exchange (incorporated as The Baltic Exchange Limited) is a membership organisation for the maritime industry, and freight market information provider for the trading and settlement of physical and derivative contracts. It was locate ...

in 1902. He was a member of the Committee of Lloyd's from 1921 to 1923. He was also a director of a number of companies, especially in the electricity supply industry.'Hall of Grafham', ''Burke's''.Obituary, ''Times''.

Political career

A personal friend of the politician

Bonar Law Andrew Bonar Law ( ; 16 September 1858 – 30 October 1923) was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1922 to May 1923. Law was born in the British colony of New Brunswick (now a ...

, Hall succeeded him as

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Dulwich Dulwich (; ) is an area in south London, England. The settlement is mostly in the London Borough of Southwark, with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth, and consists of Dulwich Village, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, and the Southwark half of ...

in the December, 1910 general election, and held the seat in succeeding elections until his death in 1932. From 1907 to 1913 he was a member of

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

for Dulwich, and was also a governor of

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2–19 independent, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...

Estates, a trustee of the Crystal Palace, and a magistrate in Surrey. Of his service in parliament, the ''Times'' said: "he was known for his zeal in questioning ministers, and for his ingenuity in devising 'supplementaries'. He was a strong party man, and was accustomed to express his opinions with a vigour which sometimes aroused the anger of his opponents, though his genial personality made him genuinely popular."

Military career

On the outbreak of

, Lord Kitchener issued his famous call to arms: 'Your King and Country Need You'. The flood of volunteers soon overwhelmed the ability of the Army to process them, and many units like the famous '

Pals Battalions The Pals battalions of World War I were specially constituted battalions of the British Army comprising men who had enlisted together in local recruiting drives, with the promise that they would be able to serve alongside their friends, neighbour ...

' were raised under the auspices of mayors and corporations of towns up and down the country. On 14 January 1915 the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

(WO) authorised Hall and the Mayor of Camberwell to recruit a brigade of four batteries of the

Royal Field Artillery The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It came into being when created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of t ...

(RFA), to be numbered CLVI (156th), popularly known as the Camberwell Gun Brigade. Hall was commissioned as a Temporary

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

on 5 February 1915 and promoted to Temporary

Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...

on 17 April. The local response was so prompt that in March another brigade was raised, numbered CLXII (162nd). The WO was then told that there were still enough would-be recruits in the Camberwell neighbourhood to raise the whole artillery for an infantry division. At once, authority was given to recruit the two remaining RFA brigades, CLXVI (166th) and CLXVII (167th) Howitzer Brigade, the 126th Heavy Battery of the

Royal Garrison Artillery The Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) was formed in 1899 as a distinct arm of the British Army's Royal Regiment of Artillery serving alongside the other two arms of the Regiment, the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) ...

, and the Divisional Ammunition Column (a total of 17 batteries) for the 33rd Division composed of Pals Battalions such as the

Public Schools Battalions The Public Schools Battalions were a group of Pals battalions of the British Army during World War I. They were raised in 1914 as part of Kitchener's Army and were originally recruited exclusively from former public schoolboys. When the battalions ...

and the

Sportsmen's Battalions The Sportsman's Battalions, also known as the 23rd (Service) Battalion and 24th (Service) Battalion (2nd Sportsman's), Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) were among the Pals battalions formed by the British Army in the early stages of the Fi ...

. Hall himself was the first commanding officer of CLVI Bde. All the men came from Camberwell and Dulwich, and the units were complete by 1 June.Becke, pp. 31–9. 33rd (Camberwell) Divisional Artillery embarked at Southampton for France on 12–13 December 1915 and fought on the Western Front for the rest of the war. As the units he had raised began to move into the line, Lt-Col Hall handed over command of CLVI Bde to a permanent officer and returned to Parliament. He was later awarded a

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typ ...

(DSO) and knighted ( KBE) in the

1918 New Year Honours The 1918 New Year Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were published in ''The London Gazette'' and ''The Times'' in Ja ...

for his efforts. After the war he was appointed (on 23 May 1923) Honorary Colonel of 53rd (City of London) Anti-Aircraft Brigade, Royal Artillery, a new Territorial Army unit that included a battery recruited from Lloyd's of London.

Family life

Hall married in Annie Ellen, daughter of Dr Henry Hall of Plaistow, on 16 April 1892, and they had four children: * Frederick Henry Hall (born 11 April 1899, died 22 June 1949), who succeeded to the baronetcy. * Cecil Mortimer Hall (born 8 June 1908) * Mildred Constance, who married firstly Horace Owen Whelan and secondly Henry Alexander Hewat * Annie Elsie, who married Maurice Henry Drake Sir Frederick Hall was created a baronet as Sir Frederick Hall of Grafham, Surrey on 5 March 1923.''London Gazette'' 17 April 1923.
/ref> Lady Hall died on 19 February 1929. Sir Frederick died at

Hyde Park Gardens Hyde Park Gardens, also known as Hyde Park Terrace consists of two roads running adjacent to the north western corner of Hyde Park, Westminster, Greater London. Number 1 Hyde Park Gardens runs up to Number 23 with a large private communal garden ...

on 28 April 1932 and was buried at

West Norwood Cemetery West Norwood Cemetery is a rural cemetery in West Norwood in London, England. It was also known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery. One of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London, it is one of the " Magnificent Seven" cemeteries of L ...

Notes

References

* Obituary, ''The Times'', 29 April 1932 * Maj A.F. Becke,''History of the Great War: Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 3b: New Army Divisions (30–41) and 63rd (R.N.) Division'', London: HM Stationery Office, 1939/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2007, . * ''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage,'' 100th Edn, London, 1953. * Maj J. Macartney-Filgate, ''History of the 33rd Divisional Artillery in the War 1914–1918'', Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2005, . * Lt-Col Graham Seton-Hutchinson, ''The Thirty-Third Division in France and Flanders, 1915–1919'', London: Waterlow & Sons 1921/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2004, . * ''Instructions Issued by The War Office During July, 1915'', London: HM Stationery Office.

External links

*
Dulwich Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Frederick 1864 births 1932 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of London County Council Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Royal Artillery officers Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Politics of the London Borough of Southwark UK MPs 1910–1918 UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1923–1924 UK MPs 1924–1929 UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1931–1935 British Army personnel of World War I Burials at West Norwood Cemetery Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom