20-year-old Private Alfred Abel Hall, a former boy scout, was killed in action on 4th October 1915 whilst serving with the 1st Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment in France. He was born in Honiley, Warickshire in 1896 but had moved to Heronfield, Knowle by the time of the 1901 when he was four years old. The family was still at Heronfield in 1911 when 14-year-old Alfred Abel was recorded as a farm labourer.
He was the only child of parents Alfred and Sarah Hannah (née Bennett) who were married in Honiley on 3rd September 1894. At this time Alfred was a labourer and Sarah a servant.
It’s not known when Alfred Abel Hall joined the Army, although he is recorded as first entering a Theatre of War on 1st June 1915, just over four months before he was killed. Unpublished research by Alan Tucker indicates that he was killed when a mortar shell fell on ‘B’ Company’s trench, causing his dug out to cave in.
He is commemorated on his parents’ headstone in the churchyard at Knowle, and also inside the parish church in the Soldiers’ Chapel, and on the Hymn Board commemorating local scouts. The board includes a carving of a circular sign with a dot at the centre – scouting code for “gone home”.
If you have any further information about the Hall family from Knowle, please let us know.
Tracey
Heritage & Local Studies Librarian
tel.: 0121 704 6934
email: heritage@solihull.gov.uk
Solihull Life 
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