7 replies to this topic

[Charles Fair]

Hello all

My grandfather - serving with the 1/19th Londons, 47th Division, wrote to his new wife on 4th October 1917:

Quote

I am rather worried by your being so much within reach of the air raids.  One Private in the Battalion had his wife and child killed on 30th Sept.  Their pictures were in the front page of "The Mirror" on 1st October.   We applied for special leave for him and he goes home today to arrange for his other children.  I shall see red if I hear there have been bombs at all near my little wife.

I have tracked down The Daily Mail for Monday 1st October 1917 and the front page has the headlines “11 Killed and 82 Hurt in All Districts Raided” and “Brave Boy Hero’s Magnificent Air Raid Exploit” above pictures of a Mrs Hall, her baby and two sons.  Text below the pictures recounts that

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“A deed of splendid heroism was performed by a boy during the progress of Saturday’s air raid.  Mrs Hall and her six children were seated in the lower back room, when a bomb fell in the garden, killing Mrs Hall and one of her sons.  Ernest, the eldest boy, with great presence of mind, rescued the baby uninjured from [the arms of] its dead mother.  No other children were injured, and the front of the house was not damaged.  The husband is at present serving in France.”

This appears to be the Gotha raid of the night of 29th/30th Sept 1917.  I was wondering if there is anyone on here who could steer me towards a reference that would give me chapter and verse on this raid as the air war is outside my main area of knowledge.  I'd ideally like to establish:
1.  Mrs Hall's address at the time of the raid
2.  Where are she and her son buried?

I'm trying to work out which Private Hall it could be (out of about 6 candidates) so an address would be very helpful.
Many thanks
Charles

[TEW]

Charles
The Times report on the raid of 30 Sept says that 3 groups of raiders came from different directions some penetrated the defences and dropped bombs on the North east and South east of the city as well as Kent and Essex.

Looking at Ancestry I found a 0 year old George Hall of Islington and a 44 Year old Fanny Hall of Islington and there are two Ernest Halls in Islington on 1911 census. Looking at all the 0 old deaths registered in Oct-Nov-Dec 1917 and cross reffing with Females of right sort of age and from same district ie Fanny Hall these seem to be the best match. In other words I can't find 2 people being registered in the same district with same surname at same time when one of them is 0 years old other than Fanny and George.

As for an address and a link to one of your 6 Hall soldiers, you'll have to find someone with full 1911 census access to look up Fanny Hall in Islington and born 1873.  Don't know how many children they had in 1911 but Ernest should also be present. as should her husband (later your soldier). I also think Fanny's maiden name may be Fowler.

Well that's my best guess.

TEW

[Aspern]

Hi Charles

I have searched through my records and notes and it looks like I have an address for you.

A bomb is recorded as having fallen on "34 Mortimer Road, Kingsland, N." in the London Fire Brigade report of the raid on 29th September 1917. In modern terms the address would be 34 Mortimer Road, London, N1, it is just off the Kingsland Road. The report states the occupier of the property is E. Hall. The damage report states, "A house of seven rooms and contents slightly damaged by explosion and dirt. One male and one female killed, one female injured and taken to hospital."

At the time of the Gotha raids the London Fire Brigade did not differentiate by age, just listing casualties as male or female. So that would seem to be the address.

I'm afraid I have no information about where the victiims were buried - but hopefully this will narrow the search for you.

Regards

Aspern

[DavidB]

Charles,
               If you have available to you the book First Blitz - a book concentrating on the Gotha raids - you will find the names of some people killed during that raid but not all. If you cannot access it I can reread the book and
extract all the references.
David

[TEW]

Have noticed my mistake in assuming it was the baby that was killed along with mother and not an older child of unknown age.
As you have the photo from The Daily Mail could you say how old Mrs Hall is and I assume it must be taken fairly close to her death?
TEW

Edited Addition;---

There is a Mabel E Hall aged 32 and a Percy H Hall aged 6 whose deaths are registered in Hackney (& therefore possibly Aspern's two) during Oct-Nov-Dec 1917. They may also be consecutive entries.

Mabel E Hall (nee Dealing/Dieling) was married Jan-Feb-Mar 1907 in Islington and the only  male Hall I can find that married in Islington in Jan-Feb-Mar 1907 is Edward Ernest M Hall who amazingly enough has a MIC with the 19th London Regiment Pte No 615853.

[Charles Fair]

Thanks to all for sterling detective work.  The GWF comes up trumps.

That particular Private Hall was the likeliest on my list of Private Halls.  I had wondered if Ernest, the eldest son had been named after his father.  Cross checking against my database reveals the following and a very sad coda:

615853 Private Edward Ernest Montague HALL
Born in Hoxton, Resided in Kingsland, N.
He originally enlisted in Hackney as 210395 in 25th Battalion, The Rifle Brigade
Private Hall was Killed in Action with 1/19th Londons on 08/08/1918 and is buried in Heath Cemetery, Harbonnieres (grave VIII. G. 16)

The 1/19th weren't actually in action that day and had been holding a quiet part of the line near Albert.  His death is not mentioned - it has either been omitted (not uncommon for an OR), or else he was one of the 2 other ranks wounded in the line near Lavieville on 31st July and in fact died of wounds.

Sources:

CWGC
SDGW
Roll of Honour in 'Memories', 19th London OCA Journal, (1924, Q4)
Medal Rolls, 19th London Regt (BW&VM Rolls p. 610)
War Diary 1/19th London Regt

I wonder what happened to the 5 surviving children?  I will scan and post the photos. Its hard to tell the ages, but she is clearly a youngish woman and the photo shows the baby on her knee - 32 would be plausible.  The son who was killed could well be 6 in his picture.

[TEW]

Charles

A few other points now that you're in agreement with Edward Ernest M Hall and Mabel Elena Hall & Percy Hall.

I think there's a probability that Ernest Hall junior married a Miss Day in Islington 1929, no definite records of any children. Of the other children I could only have reasonable certainty with Ernest b1910, Percy b1911 and Walter b1915. Can't find a record of the dead baby.

Mabel Hall's Maiden name is given as Dealing at Percy's birth but Dieling for Ernest & Walter & for her marriage to Edward. The only Dielings in the whole of the UK in 1911 are located in Islington. I think this is Mabel's Family and her Father was born in Germany (1901 census) and is German, her siblings seem to be younger than her and were born in the UK. I could not find any birth record for Mabel so there is a possibility she was also born in Germany.

TEW

[Charles Fair]

Many thanks TEW, thats all additional helful material.  I will see if I can track down Ernest's service record.
Charles