16 HALL, Sydney Raymond

Extract  from  “The  Fighting  10th”,  Adelaide,  Webb  &  Son,  1936  by  C.B.L.  Lock;   kindly  supplied  courtesy  of  the  10th  Bn  AIF  Association  Committee,  April  2015.   HALL, Sydney Raymond Born 17 December 1884. Son of the late Thomas William Hall, who was carrying on business as a land agent at Unley. His elder brother had been accidentally drowned at Henley Beach, a few years before the Great War. On 14 May 1908 he married May, daughter of the late John Drummond, of Sandford & Co., Adelaide, they had two children, with his family they resided at NO. 48 Wattle Street, Frewville. In June 1900 he entered the Education Department, but in 1901 transferred to the Lands Titles Office, and at the time of his departure for the front was senior counter-clerk in the Register-General of Deeds Office, Victoria Square. He always took a keen interest in military matters and received his first commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Corps of Signallers on 6 March 1911. Upon the introduction of compulsory military training he was transferred on 1 July 1912 to the Engineers, and for some time he was a Lieutenant of Signalling in the 74th (Boothby) Infantry. On 3 August 1914 he was transferred to the 22nd Signal Troop and promoted to the rank of Captain. He held this commission at the time of joining the AIF. He was anxious to join the 1st Australian Contingent, and on 19 August 1914 was attached to the 10th Battalion Headquarters at Morphettville as Signalling Officer with rank of Captain. He landed with his Signallers form the Prince of Wales in the historic landing on 25 April 1915, and during that morning with great skill and determination established communication with Brigade and Divisional Headquarters, which at the time had no landed. It was one of his Signallers who first transmitted the message that the landing had been successfully accomplished. (The actual flag used on this occasion by No. 966 Private G B Carter is now in the National War Museum at Canberra.) Later that day he was killed in action, having the misfortune to be shot down, and never regained consciousness. News of his death was first received in Adelaide on 5 May 1915 and the late Registrar General of Deeds (G Wilfred Anthony) when hearing of his death said: “The sad announcement has cast a gloom over the department. He was a splendid fellow. I had the highest opinion of him as an Officer and man.” At a meeting of the Unley City Council on 11 May 1915, the Mayor of Unley (Mr T E Yelland) said: “The war has been brought very close to Australia by the first engagement of the Australian soldiers in Turkey. Of the many residents of Unley who offered their services to the Empire at the commencement of the war, Captain Hall, son of Mr T W Hall, had unfortunately been killed in action.”