Edwin Hall was born at 7. Upper Rupert Street, Westminster, London, England, on the 25th November 1889, the son of Henry and Eliza Hall (née Barnard). His father was an “oil merchant”, dealing with oils for mixing paints. Edwin was one of five children, although his eldest brother had died in infancy.
In the 1890’s, the family moved from Rupert Street to 19. Queens Crescent, Kentish Town, London.
After his father died in 1904, Edwin and his older brother, Herbert, assisted their mother in running the family business while his younger sisters, Ethel and Dorothy worked in local drapery businesses.
It is not known when Edwin left the family business, but he joined the Mercantile Marine as a steward on passenger ships and joined the Lusitania as an assistant Engineers’ Mess steward at Liverpool on the 17th April 1915, in time for her departure from the Princes Landing Stage on the River Mersey for what would prove to be the final time.
After an uneventful voyage to New York City, Edwin Hall was still on board, serving in the same capacity, when the Lusitania commenced her return voyage to Liverpool on the afternoon of the 1st May. Then, on the 7th May, when the great liner was sunk by a torpedo discharged from the German submarine U-20, while about twelve miles south west of the Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland, Edwin Hall was fortunate to be counted among the survivors and landed at Queenstown. From there, he eventually managed to return to his family in London.
On the 12th August 1915, he enlisted in the Royal Navy. He was assigned to the Royal Naval Air Service as an air mechanic and served in France from April 1916. He was
discharged on the 30th April 1920.
On the 14th November 1915, he had married Lucy Brown in Maidstone, Kent, but it is not thought they had any children.
Returning to civilian life, Edwin found employment as a waiter at Kenilworth Hotel, Bloomsbury Street, London, while his wife worked as a maternity nurse for private families.
Nothing is known of them after 1921.
Westminster London England Church of England Births and Baptisms 1813 – 1919, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, 1921 Census of England, Cunard Records, UK Royal Navy Register of Seamen’s Services 1848 – 1939, UK Royal Air Force Airmen’s Service Records 1918 – 1940, PRO BT 351/1/56428, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 29th December 2023.