William Hall, V C

info Nova Scotia Museum 1747 Summer Street Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 3A6 William Hall, V C W illiam Hall was the and he received British and fi rst Black person, the fi rst Turkish medals for his work Nova Scotian and one of the during this campaign. fi rst Canadians to receive the After the Crimean War, Empire’s highest award for Hall was assigned to the re- bravery, the Victoria Cross. ceiving ship HMS Victory Th e son of former American at Portsmouth, England. slaves, Hall was born in 1827 He then joined the crew of at Horton, Nova Scotia, where HMS Shannon as Captain he also attended school. He of the Foretop. It was his grew up during the age of service with Shannon that wooden ships, when many led to the Victoria Cross. boys dreamed of travelling Shannon, under Captain the world in sailing vessels. William Peel, was escorting As a young man, Hall worked troops to China, in readi- in shipyards at Hantsport for ness for expected confl ict several years, building wood- there, when mutiny broke en ships for the merchant out among the sepoys in marine. He then joined the India. Lord Elgin, former crew of a trading vessel and, before he was eighteen, Governor General of Upper Canada and then Envoy Ex- had visited most of the world’s important ports. trodinary to China, was asked to send troops to India. Perhaps a search for adventure caused young William Th e rebel sepoy army had taken Delhi and Cawnpore, Hall to leave a career in the American merchant navy and a small British garrison at Lucknow was under and enlist in the Royal Navy in Liverpool, England, siege. Elgin diverted troops to Calcutta and, as the in 1852. His fi rst service, as Able Seaman with HMS situation in India worsened, Admiral Seymour also dis- Rodney, included two years in the Crimean War. Hall patched Shannon, Pearl and Sanspareil from Hong Kong was a member of the naval brigade that landed from the to Calcutta. Captain Peel, several offi cers, and about 400 fl eet to assist ground forces manning heavy gun batteries, seamen and marines including William Hall, travelled You may reproduce Infos freely for non-profi t, educational use. Please credit the Nova Scotia Museum. by barge and on foot from Calcutta to Cawnpore, drag- Hall moved back to Nova Scotia to live with his sisters, ging eight-inch guns and twenty-four-pound howitzers. Rachel Robinson and Mary Hall, on a farm in Avonport Progress was slow with fi ghting all along the way. At overlooking the Minas Basin. A modest man, he lived and Cawnpore the Shannon crew joined another relief force farmed without recognition until 1901, when HRH the under Sir Colin Campbell (later to become Lieutenant- Duke of Cornwall and York (later King George V) visited Governor of Nova Scotia) and began Nova Scotia. A parade of British veterans the historic march to Lucknow. was held, and Hall wore his Victoria Cross Th e key to Lucknow was the Shah and three other service medals. Th e Duke Najaf mosque, a walled structure it- inquired about the medals and drew at- self enclosed by yet another wall. Th e tention to Hall’s service. outer wall was breached by the 93rd Th ree years later, William Hall died at Highlanders at mid-day, and the Shan- home, of paralysis, and was buried without non brigade dragged its guns to within military honours in an unmarked grave. In 400 yards (366 m) of the inner wall. 1937, a local campaign was launched to have William Hall volunteered to replace a Hall’s valour recognized by the Canadian missing man in the crew of a twenty- Legion, but it was eight more years before four-pounder. Th e walls were thick, his body was reburied in the grounds of the and by late afternoon the 30,000 se- Hantsport Baptist Church. Th e monument poy defenders had infl icted heavy ca- erected there bears an enlarged replica of the sualties from their protected positions. Victoria Cross and a plaque that describes Th e bombardment guns from Shannon Hall’s courage and devotion to duty. were dragged still closer to the walls Subsequently, a branch of the Canadian and a bayonet attack was ordered, but Legion in Halifax was renamed in his to little eff ect. Captain Peel ordered honour. A gymnasium in Cornwallis, the two guns to within 20 yards (18 m) of DaCosta-Hall Educational Program for the wall. Th e enemy concentrated its Nova Scotia Museum Collection Black students in Montreal, and the an- fi re on these gun crews until one was nual gun run of the International Tattoo in totally annihilated. Of the Shannon William Hall’s Victoria Cross Halifax also perpetuate his name. crew, only Hall and one offi cer, Lieu- was worn on a blue ribbon, In 1967, William Hall’s medals were representing the Royal Navy tenant Th omas Young, were left stand- returned to Canada from England to be ing. Young was badly injured, but he shown at Expo ‘67 in Montreal. As property and Hall continued working the gun, fi ring, reloading, of the Province of Nova Scotia, they were later transferred to and fi ring again until they fi nally triggered the charge the Nova Scotia Museum. that opened the walls. “I remember,” Hall is quoted as saying, “that after each round we ran our gun forward, References: until at last my gun’s crew were actually in danger of being hurt by splinters of brick and stone torn by the Blakeley, Phyllis R., “William Hall, Canada’s First Naval VC”, round shot from the walls we were bombarding.” in Th e Dalhousie Review (Halifax), vol. XXXVII, no. 3, autumn 1957 Captain Peel recommended William Hall and Clowes, William Laird, Th e Royal Navy, London, 1903 Th omas Young for the Victoria Cross, in recognition Creagh, O’Moore, Th e VC and DSO, London, 1924 of their “gallant conduct at a twenty-four-pounder Fergusson, C. Bruce, “William Hall, VC”, in Th e Journal of Education gun... at Lucknow on the 16th November 1857”. (Halifax), vol. 17, no.2, December 1967 Hall received his Victoria Cross aboard HMS Donegal Pachai, Bridglal, “William Hall”, in Th e Dictionary of Canadian Biography, in Queenstown Harbour, Ireland, on October 28, 1859. vol. XIII, 1994 (also available online at www.biographi.ca) His naval career continued aboard many ships, among States, David W., “William Hall, VC, of Horton Bluff , Nova Scotia: them Bellerophon, Hero, Impregnable, Petrel and Royal Nineteenth-Century Naval Hero”, in Collections of the Royal Nova Scotia Adelaide, until he retired in 1876 as Quartermaster. Historical Society, vol. 44, 1996 Tourism, Culture and Heritage.

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