| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Harold Hall was born in Beverley the 10 Oct 1890 and baptised at St Nicholas’ Church the 18 Oct 1892. His father Thomas Bowling Hall, originally from Grimsby, was the captain of a Humber Keel operating out of Beverley Beck. Harold’s mother was Margaret Ann Hall (nee Gray), born in Beverley in 1863. They had six children, Harold was the eldest; they married in 1887. Margaret died in 1903 and Thomas married Harriet Passmore, born in 1873 in Beverley, in 1909. The family lived variously on Beckside, Holme Church Lane and latterly at 53 Beaver Road. Harold worked alongside his father and was described in the 1911 census as a “canal boat captain”.
Harold married Florence Grice at Beverley Minster on 29 Nov 1912, by which time he was living on Holland Street, Holderness Road, Hull. They had two children Margaret, born the 8 Jun 1913 and Bernard the 27 Jun 1914.
Harold served in the Royal Engineers, in the Inland Water Transport Corps, clearly drawing on his maritime skills. The corps operated barges on canals in France supplying war materials to inland positions, they also operated barge hospitals. Harold elected to stay in the army after the end of the war. He reached the rank of corporal but in Dec 1919 underwent a court martial for being found in “civilian clothes” in the port of Dunkerque. He was found guilty and reduced to the rank of sapper. He left the army at the end of 1920. He was awarded the War and Victory Medals.
Harold and his family continued to live in Hull. In the 1939 Register he is recorded as being a “coal trimmer". Harold died in 1958 aged 66; his wife died in 1977. He is remembered on the Holme Church Lane Street Shrine.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |