Universities at War

Cyril Stanley Hall was born in South Shields on 12 July 1894, the second son of William and Louisa Hall of Westoe. He had one older brother, William Percy, and two older sisters, Gladys and Mary Winifred. He studied at Bede College between 1913 and 1915 before joining the Army at Newcastle upon Tyne. During his time at the college he was a member of a successful college rowing crew, and he performed in a number of musical entertainments, singing songs such as "Captain Ginger", and "The Spaniard that blighted my Life", a big hit for Al Jolson in 1913. He was originally Private T/149 in the Northumberland Infantry Brigade Company, Army Service Corps before transferring to the 1/8^th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry as Private 8/2364. He went to France with the battalion on 19 April 1915. 1/8^th Durham Light Infantry were almost immediately put into the line on the Gravenstafel Ridge near Ypres to assist hard-pressed Canadian infantry. Cyril Hall was mortally wounded on 25 April and was captured by the Germans. Although the June issue of The Bede magazine was still reporting Hall as wounded, and a prisoner of war, in fact he had died of his wounds, aged 20, on 29 April 1915 and was buried in a German cemetery at Roeselare. The location of his grave was later lost and he is memorialized at Roeselare Communal Cemetery, Belgium. His name is also honoured on the Bede College 1914-1918 Cross, Plaque, and Roll of Honour.