Benjamin William Hall MRCS LM (1833 - 1894)

Born 6 Sep 1833 in Ludford, Herefordshire, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Husband of Jane Simpson Eade — married 31 Mar 1858 in All Saints Church, Somerset East, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Descendants

Died 4 Aug 1894 at age 60 in Driefontein, Gauteng, South Africa

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Andrew Hall [send private message]

Biography

Benjamin was born in Langford, Hereford, UK in 1833 and baptised at Churchill, Somerset on 22 Nov 1836.

According to his death notice and obituary in the South African Medical Journal it incorrectly stated that Benjamin was born in on the Isle of Jersey in the Channel Islands. It is also said that he attended school at the Royal Naval and Military School, Gosport, England and qualified as a medical doctor at Queens College, Birmingham, now the medical school of the University of Birmingham. On graduation he became a Resident Surgeon at the Birmingham Lying–in Charity Hospital and thereafter passed his Army Medical Board exam and served as a military surgeon at both Chichester and Chatham. After the Crimean War he was sent to South Africa to set up a military sanatorium, but the project being abandoned, was appointed District Surgeon in Somerset West. There he met and married Jane Eade, the daughter of a medical colleague.

He lived at Somerset West for five years, after which he moved to Fort Beaufort where he also served as District Surgeon and during the 9th (last) Frontier War was, from 1877-1878, Commanding Officer of the Beaufort Rangers, a volunteer Cavalry Regiment, holding the rank of Captain. He then took up the position of special surgeon to the colonial forces and, as a Captain, led the main column and the 24th Regiment and was mentioned in despatches. (The Forces War Records website lists a BW Hall as serving as a civilian medical practitioner in the Army Medical Department in South Africa over this period) Thereafter he was in charge of the hospitals at Ibeka and Butterworth, but moved to East London at the end of the war. However, at the start of the Basotho War (1880-81) he was persuaded to take charge of the Hospital at Aliwal North. Thereafter he spent about two years as District Surgeon at Jagersfontein, a diamond mining town in the Orange Free State.

After a period of ill health and recuperation at Port Alfred, he spent time in the United Kingdom and then returned to South Africa, this time to Johannesburg where he was instrumental in the establishment of a public hospital and sanitary board for the new city, chairing the board of the former and serving on the latter. He is recognised as ' bringing the sanitary arrangements [for Johannesburg] into their present efficient state".

He retired in 1891 and passed away at his country estate outside Johannesburg in 1894.

Sources

• FindMyPast: Somerset Baptism Index https://www.findmypast.com/transcript?id=GBPRS%2FSOMERSET%2FBAP%2F003380027
• "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NN6V-58V : 11 February 2018, Benjamin Hall, ); citing item 27 p 22, index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 1,657,581.
• Geni.com: Copy of Marriage Register https://www.geni.com/photo/view?album_type=photos_of_me&id=6000000007369564885&photo_id=6000000026920859381&position=0
• "South Africa, Transvaal, Probate Records from the Master of the Supreme Court, 1869-1958", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLBG-86D7 : 3 September 2019), Benjamin William Hall, 1894.
• "South Africa, Transvaal, Probate Records from the Master of the Supreme Court, 1869-1958", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLBG-868L : 3 September 2019), Benjamin William Hall, 1894.
• "South Africa, Transvaal, Civil Death, 1869-1954," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:W8L3-483Z : 12 November 2019), Benjamin William Hall, 4 Aug 1894; citing Death, Transvaal, South Africa, Department of the Interior. Registrar of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, Transvaal.
• Obituary: Death - Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa 4 August 1894, The South African Medical Journal – September 1894, p.134 Obituary Dr. Benjamin William Hall http://archive.samj.org.za/index.php?path=%2F1894+Vol+I%2FArticles%2F09+September
• Obituary: Dr Benjamin William Hall, The British Medical Journal vol 2, 1894 (27 Oct 1894 p959) London: British Medical Association https://archive.org/stream/britishmedicaljo02brit#page/n0/search/Benjamin+William+Hall
• Beaufort Rangers Cavalry Volunteers, South African Military History Website http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol014jh.html
• The National Archives, UK: Forces War Records, The South Africa Medal (1877) Roll https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/records/1005346/civilian-medical-practitioner-b-w-hall-british-army-army-medical-department/
• Geni.com: Dr. Benjamin William Hall https://www.geni.com/people/private/6000000007369453732?through=6000000007381717972
• Geneanet: Dr Benjamin William Hall MRCS LM https://gw.geneanet.org/newlandrichards?lang=en&p=dr+benjamin+william&n=hall