Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Great War C.B.E. group of four awarded to Paymaster Rear-Admiral H. S. Hall, Royal Navy, a veteran of the Gambia 1894 operations

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, C.B.E. (Civil) Commander’s 1st type neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels; East and West Africa 1887-1900, 1 clasp, Gambia 1894 (Asst. Payr. H. S. Hall, R.N., H.M.S. Raleigh); British War and Victory Medals (Payr. Capt. H. S. Hall, R.N.), with card box of issue for the last two, together with his Gieves rank shoulder boards, minor contact wear, generally good very fine (5) £600-800

C.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1919.

Hugh Seymour Hall was born in Birtley, Northumberland in August 1869, the son of a clergyman, and was educated at Shaftesbury Grammar School and Eastman’s Royal Naval Academy, Southsea. Entering the Royal Navy as an Assistant Clerk in January 1886, he was advanced to Assistant Paymaster in August 1890, and was present in the Gambia operations of 1894, when he was landed from H.M.S. Raleigh at Bathurst for service in the Naval Brigade, and as as a Clerk to Rear-Admiral F. G. D. Bedford’s Secretary.

Advanced to Fleet Paymaster in October 1908, Hall was employed as a Secretary to four Rear-Admirals in the Home Fleet in the period leading up to the Great War, and served as War Paymaster of Contingencies at the Admiralty 1916-18, in which latter year he attained flag rank as Paymaster-in-Chief. Placed on the Retired List in 1923, he died at Bournemouth in June 1940.