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Arthur Henry Hall
(1876-1949), EngineerSitter in 2 portraits
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Ann Smith
12 October 2020, 17:04
Arthur Henry Hall C.B. C.B.E. (17 Aug. 1876 – 10 Sep. 1949)
Engineer
Arthur Henry Hall was born in Clifton, Bristol, the oldest son of Henry Sinclair Hall (known as an author of mathematical textbooks). He was educated at Clifton College and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he gained a first class degree in Mechanical Sciences. After serving an apprenticeship with a shipbuilding company, he joined the Ordnance Department of the War Office and, in 1905, became an assistant mechanical engineer at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich. Early in 1914 Hall transferred to the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield, only to return to Woolwich on the outbreak of war to take up the role of assistant superintendent in the Mechanical Engineering Department. In 1917, he joined the staff of the Admiralty and spent two years as Director of Torpedoes and Mine Production. After the war, he was lent to the Ministry of Munitions and in 1926 transferred to the Air Ministry to take charge of construction at the Royal Airship Works at Cardington in Bedfordshire. Two years later he became Chief Superintendent of the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough, a position that he held until his retirement in July 1941. The country being again at war, Hall was retained as a consultant to the Ministry of Aircraft Production until 1945. The press release announcing his retirement credited him with “the technical superiority of British aircraft”. He was created C.B.E. in 1917 and C.B. in 1937.