sketcher, explorer, pastoralist and pearler, was born in England on Christmas Day 1825, second son of Henry Edward Hall and Sarah Theodosia, née Branson. He came to Western Australia with his parents, two brothers and three sisters in the Protector , arriving at Fremantle on 26 February 1830. He attended Rev. J.B. Wittenoom 's school at Fremantle and his earliest known sketch, dated 15 December 1843, is annotated Chaplain J.B. Wittenoom’s Residence . In 1852-60 Hall was at the Victorian goldfields. On his return, he joined Francis Gregory’s exploring party to the north-west of Western Australia. Two years later, he took up Andover, the first sheep station in the Roebourne district, on behalf of John Wellard. He explored the Fitzroy River with McRae in 1865. Hall’s surviving diaries for this period (1861 and 1863-64) give details of his life but make no mention of drawing.
Few works are known but Hall continued to sketch until at least the late 1860s; Roebuck Bay Station is dated 7 October 1866. Other pencil drawings such as Mesas South of Carnarvon are undated. In 1869 Hall became a storekeeper, shipowner and pearler at Roebourne and was involved in the establishment of the pearling industry at Broome. He died of a heart attack while swimming in Cossack Creek on the evening of 11 February 1895. He was survived by his wife, Hannah Boyd, née Lazenby, whom he had married on 2 November 1868, and three of their four children. His papers are in the Battye Library, Perth, WA, but his sketches are still privately owned.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
