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Auction: 18001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 469

Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (PLY. 9638 Henry Hall, Private, R.M.L.I.), very fine

Henry Hall was born in Wolverhampton on 17 August 1880 and enlisted in the Royal Marines Light Infantry in January 1899, when he was drafted to the Plymouth Division.

He was serving aboard armoured cruiser H.M.S. Carnarvon on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914 and quickly saw action off the Falklands on 8 December. On that memorable occasion Carnarvon engaged both the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and rescued 20 survivors from the latter ship.

Having then been awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in June 1915, Hall was drafted to the 1st R.M. Battalion (R.N.D.) and it was in this capacity that he was killed in action at Gavrelle Windmill in the battle of Arras on 28 April 1917. On that date, he was among 1,000 casualties suffered by the ranks of the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the R.M. Brigade, the heaviest losses inflicted on that corps in a single day: at one point in the action an overwhelming enemy counter-attack was faced off by the senior officer's rapid enlistment of his H.Q. staff, cooks and bottle-washers among them.

Hall has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial. He left a widow, Henrietta Hall of 43 Seymour Avenue, Lipson, Plymouth; sold with copied research.

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Sold for
£100