Captain TW Hall MM & Croix de Guerre

 Dad writes about his father, Capt. T. W Hall MM and Croix de Guerre

By the time the 14-18 War ended, my father was a Battery Sgt Major R.F.A. with a distinguished war record. He had been decorated with the Military Medal and the French Croix de Guerre with Palm and had been mentioned in despatches several times.

I have an original letter written to him on the squared paper of a Field Service Pocket Book after one of his actions. He had rescued one of the batteries and some Allied soldiers who had been trapped under intensive fire from the Germans. It says, ‘Dear Sgt Hall, On behalf of the officers and men of the late 6th County of London Battery, I beg you to accept this small token of gratitude and admiration in the way you came to our help on that fateful night of Oct 1st 1916. The whole battery was desirous of showing its appreciation of your gallant work and of the way you came to the succour of our stricken comrades and also wished to give you something as a reminder in years to come. The whole Battery joins me in congratulating you on having the Croix de Guerre bestowed upon you, never was it better deserved by anyone and we are all very pleased about it. Please accept this little present with our warmest thanks and as a tribute from those you succoured in their hour of need. Wishing you the best of luck in the future, I remain yours very sincerely, G.M. Hamilton Capt B/281 RFA, Feb 20 1917.’ With the letter is an engraved silver hunter pocket watch which keeps good time to this day.

 



The old man never talked about this, but it must have been a terrible experience that earned him this award, for there were times when he got so dreadfully drunk that he used to live through it again. It used to frighten me as a boy to see my father crawling round on his knees in a drunken stupor, going through the motions of pulling somebody out of a shell hole. In later years I became more understanding. One curious thing my father did tell us children was that he could often feel the stumps of the fingers of a Frenchman’s hand scraping his face and a voice saying, ‘Save me Tommy, save me,’ but we could never get him to enlarge upon it. It must have been a very gallant action, and never in my lifetime as a soldier, have I heard of a private presentation being made by soldiers to another for such and act. My mother and Aunt Emm recall how North Woolwich, and especially Winifred Street, went wild with excitement when they heard that Sgt T. Hall had been awarded England’s greatest decoration for valour, the Victoria Cross, but it was premature. Evidently he had been recommended for the VC but the French decorated him with their own Croix de Guerre and so he did not get the coveted VC.

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