Universities at War

William Graham Hall, born 23 September 1891, came from the village of Hutton Rudby near Stokesley in Yorkshire. He was born and educated there, and at the age of 19 was employed there as an elementary school teacher. He attended Bede College 1913-1915, and during these years his name features prominently in rugby match reports in the college magazine. On the outbreak of war Hall enlisted in the 1/8th Battalion Durham Light Infantry at Durham, serving as Private 2324. He went out to Belgium in April 1915 with 8 DLI, and was quickly thrown into action in the Second Battle of Ypres, during the course of which he was killed in action, aged only 23. While the Commonwealth War Graves Commission reports his death as having occurred (or been officially confirmed) on 26 June 1915, The Bede magazine and the Newcastle Daily Journal report him as missing before 31 May and 7 June respectively, and the Report and List of Members of Bede College Club (1925) provides a date of death of 25 April 1915, on the first day of the battalion’s engagement in the Battle of Gravenstafel Ridge. As in the cases of a number of other men in 8 DLI, it is likely Hall was reported missing in action after this first bloody engagement, but his body not being found nor any reports of his capture having been received, his death was officially confirmed only on 26 June. A note in Hall’s student record (DCRO E/HB 2/236 f.128) relays a report that he was ‘buried on the field by the Germans’, but this grave was lost, and Hall is therefore commemorated on the Menin Gate at Ypres. His name is also found on Bede College 1914-1918 cross, plaque, and Roll of Honour, and on a war memorial and plaque at Hutton Rudby.