In Loos British Cemetery, is the Commonwealth War Grave of 55434 Corporal Noel Bramwell Hall serving with the Canadian Infantry who died 26/10/1916.
Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-
Noel (so named because he was born at Christmas) Bramwell Hall was the second son of solicitor’s clerk Frederic Jackson Hall and his wife Florence Jane Hudson. He was born in Shincliffe Village, where his grandparents lived in the Manor House, and he was baptised at St. Mary’s Church in January 1892. His grandfather James ran a private school in Old Elvet, Durham and it is known that his older brother Frederic attended this school, but not whether Noel was ever a pupil there.
Father Frederic was fighting in the Boer War at the time of the 1901 census and Noel and his mother were boarding with the Spraggins family at Sherburn House Station, where Mr Spraggins was the station master. Young Frederic was a boarder at the school.
Ten years later, after the death of his mother, Noel was living with his grandmother and two aunts, Marion and Rosa, in Shincliffe Hamor House. He was working as a music shop assistant.
18th April 1912 saw Noel leave for Canada, sailing on board the SS Sicilian from Liverpool to Montreal and an onward destination of Toronto where he found work with the Consumers Gas Council.
Noel enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 12th November 1914 and became Private 55434 of the 19th Battalion, mentioning his time in the local Canadian militia and naming his Aunt Rosa in Shincliffe as his next of kin. Noel also asked if his landlady’s daughter could be informed in case of his death.
Based in Exhibition Park, Toronto the battalion sailed for England on 13th May 1915 on the SS Scandinavian arriving in Plymouth ten days later. Based at Shorncliffe Camp on the south coast for four months, the battalion then sailed overnight from Folkestone to Boulogne on 15th September and made their way by train and foot towards the trenches. The men entered the trenches for the first time in Belgium a week later, and then In October they moved into the lines at Vierstraat. There, in muddy and dangerous conditions, the battalion spent the next four and a half months, alternating front line duties with periods in reserve, and it was here on 18th October that Noel was wounded in the back, but returned to duty just four days later.
As part of the 2nd Division the 19th Battalion saw action in the disastrous operation at the St. Eloi craters in April 1916. After being relieved by the 5th Brigade, they regrouped and were ready for action in the Ypres Salient in June, before marching to the battlefields of the Somme in August. Here the battalion was able to report that strange machines, i.e. tanks, had played an important part in their victory. In less than a month, from 10th September to 3rd October 1916, the 19th Battalion suffered an estimated loss of nineteen officers and 412 other ranks (killed, wounded, and missing), so to complete the establishment Private 55434 was promoted to Corporal.
The 19th Battalion left the Somme and headed to the Calonne sector, northwest of Vimy Ridge, where they entered the lines on 17th October. Noel was posted to the 4th Trench Mortar Battery and it was here at the Brick Wall near Calonne on 26th October 1916 that he was accidentally killed when a Stokes mortar prematurely exploded, blowing the gun to pieces and killing him outright.
Noel Bramwell Hall is remembered in Shincliffe on S123.02 and S123.05
He is also remembered in Canada on their Virtual War Memorial. His name is also included in the book National Memorial Album of Canadian Heroes published in 1919.
