Charles Leigh Hall and his twin Maud, were born on 3rd April 1878 in Clifton, Gloucestershire. Two of eight children, their parents were Pedro and Anne Hall. Pedro, whose full name was Pedro Henrique Sinclair Hall, was better known as Henry, and was a mathematics tutor and Assistant Master at Clifton College, and it goes without saying that the Hall children had a educated upbringing.

Charles was always to be destined for great things. By the time of the 1901 census, when he was 22 years of age, he was a Lieutenant in the Royal Marines Light Infantry. Based on the cruiser HMS Amphion, he travelled the Pacific and, on the night the return was taken, was moored in Vancouver, Canada.

On 15th June 1910, Charles married Sophia Elinor Veale. Born in Caledon, South Africa, the couple wed in the village of Littleham, Devon. They set up home in Gosport, Hampshire – presumably as the now Captain Hall’s work was based from the docks there – and went on to have two children, Anthony and Nicholas.

By September 1915, Charles had been promoted again, this time to the rank of Major. His wartime service included a lot of work in Africa, including in Cameroon in 1914 – for which he was mentioned in Dispatches – German East Africa (Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania today) in 1915 and Saadani (Tanzania) in 1916.

In October 1916, he was invalided out of the Royal Marine Light Infantry for reasons that are unclear, and returned to Britain from Simonstown, South Africa. While Charles seems not to have gone to sea any more, his experience was still respected, and, on 15th January 1917, he was promoted to Brigade Major.

The family settled back down in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and remained there for the next eighteen months. By the summer of 1918, Charles was in Bristol – either based at the docks there, or hospitalised in the city – and passed away on 29th July 1918. He was 40 years of age.

Sophia and her boys were still in Portsmouth, but Charles Leigh Hall was laid to rest in the graveyard of St George’s Church in Easton-in-Gordano, Somerset. The headstone incorrectly gives the month of death as June. Charles’ will divided his estate – £4467 (£318,000 in today’s money) – between his brother, Arthur, and Charles Garnett, a barrister, possibly as a trust for his sons.

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