William Reginald Hall

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Admiral SIR William Reginald Hall, K.C.M.G., C.B., Royal Navy, Retired (28 June, 1870 – 22 October, 1943) was an officer of the Royal Navy.

Early Life & Career

Hall was born at The Close, Salisbury, 28 June 1870, the elder son and second child of Lieutenant (later Captain) William Henry Hall, Royal Navy, of Ross, Herefordshire, the first Director of Naval Intelligence and later Captain-Superintendent of Pembroke Dockyard, by his wife, Caroline Elizabeth, daughter of the Reverend Henry Thomas Armfield, vicar of the cathedral and the close of Salisbury.

Hall's first sea trip was in his father's ship, the Flamingo, gun-vessel, at the age of ten. He entered the Britannia as a cadet in 1884 and became a Lieutenant in January, 1890. Of the two specialist branches (gunnery and torpedo) then open to lieutenants who had passed their examinations with credit, Hall chose the gunnery branch. His forceful personality and driving power were already in evidence and, after serving a commission at sea as gunnery lieutenant, he was appointed a senior staff officer on the books of the Excellent, then one of the most coveted appointments in the navy. He was promoted to Commander in 1901 and, as executive officer of a battleship, achieved distinction by his methods of enforcing discipline. On one occasion the depot sent all the men of bad character to his ship, confident that he would either reform them or rid the Service of them. But, although a terror to malefactors, he was already implementing views on the welfare of the ship's company and on brightening their lives when afloat which were far in advance of the times. He was promoted to the rank of Captain in 1905 and, after serving as Inspecting Captain of Mechanical Training Establishments, in 1907 assumed command of the cadet training cruiser, the Cornwall. His next ship was the Natal, armoured cruiser, where his keen interest in gunnery was reflected by the ship retaining the first place in the navy at the annual gunnery tests. From 1911 to 1913 he was Naval Assistant to the Controller of the Navy.

In 1913 Hall assumed command of the new battle cruiser, the Queen Mary. He now had the opportunity of introducing a wide range of reforms to which he had given much thought. Convinced of the importance of raising the prestige of the petty officers, in his view the most important link in the chain of command, he had all their messes reconstructed in order to give them greater comfort. At the Admiralty's instigation he accepted the responsibility of commissioning without the customary staff of ship's police and trusting to the petty officers to undertake police duties. He broke with tradition by introducing a three-watch system for the organization of the ship's company instead of the two-watch system, because he was convinced that a three-watch system was more suitable for wartime. When war broke out, all the larger units followed this lead. The first cinematograph, the first laundry, the first bookstall, the first adequate hot-water system on board were other fruits of his imagination and devoted interest in the welfare of his men. A deeply religious man, he built into the ship the first chapel in a man-of-war; a few years later all big ships were fitted with chapels. In a conservative Service, these reforms inevitably aroused a storm of adverse criticism, but this never deflected Hall from his crusade to improve life on board ship. His monument is to be found in every ship which flies the white ensign.

Director of Naval Intelligence

Hall was in command of the Queen Mary at the Battle of Heligoland Bight (28 August, 1914), but before the end of the year he was invited to become Director of the Intelligence Division of the Admiralty. He had, in abundant measure, all the qualities for his new post. Officer prisoners from German submarines who had stubbornly refused to respond to ordinary interrogation often became as putty in his hands. There was a hypnotic power about his glance which broke their resistance. On occasions his manner became explosive, and the facial twitch, which gave him his nickname of "Blinker", became exaggerated; at other times his disarming smile and twinkling eyes looking out from bushy eyebrows overcame opposition to a new scheme for gaining intelligence.

The main source of intelligence of the German fleet was through intercepted signals. On the outbreak of war Sir Alfred Ewing, then Director of Naval Education, formed a small department to study German naval signals. When the German cruiser Magdeburg was sunk in the Baltic, a signal book was recovered, and as soon as this book reached the Admiralty the deciphering of German signals began to exercise a profound influence on the movements of the British fleet. Wireless stations for the interception of German naval signals on all waves were rapidly erected, and the staff of cryptographers was augmented to deal with the increasing number of signals arriving at the Admiralty. The department could no longer remain a private enterprise under Ewing; naval officers were needed to interpret the deciphered signals; someone vested with authority was required to enrol additional staff and order the erection of new wireless stations. The work was properly a function of the naval intelligence division, and so it was transferred into that division and Hall took control. Under his driving power the new section (called Room 40 O.B.) extended its work until there were over a hundred men and women deciphering signals and issuing intelligence reports to the Admiralty and commanders-in-chief afloat, and fifty wireless stations in direct land-line communication with Room 40. Hall spread his net far and wide to draw into Room 40 a staff who were German scholars and gifted with the type of brain which can unravel ciphers. There came a time when the movements of the British fleets and squadrons were entirely governed by this intelligence, and it was a principal factor in winning the long-drawn-out battle against the German submarines.

Hall also developed the interception of messages between Germany and Spain for onward transmission by cable to Mexico and the United States, and between Germany and Turkey. These messages which frequently contained information of vital importance were properly the concern of the Foreign Office, but the Cabinet trusted Hall implicitly and left to him the responsibility of deciding when the purport of a signal should be shown to ministers. From these messages the trend of German foreign policy and the activities of German diplomatic officials and of German-paid saboteurs could be followed. Hall was able to forewarn the British authorities of a German conspiracy in Persia and Afghanistan, and of plans to destroy the Siberian railway. He was able to follow closely the activities of the Indian revolutionaries in the United States whose efforts to foment a rising in India continued unabated until the end of the war. These messages also enabled him to get on the track of Sir Roger Casement who in the early months of the war was assisting saboteurs in America, and to follow him to Germany where he sought the support of German armed forces for a rebellion in Ireland, and finally to come up with him when he landed from a submarine on the west coast of Ireland.

The most important message handled by Hall was the famous Zimmermann telegram, in which the German foreign minister instructed the German minister in Mexico to propose an offensive alliance with that country should America enter the war on the side of the Allies. Relations between America and Mexico were severely strained and Germany hoped that by offering financial support and an undertaking that Mexico should reconquer her lost territories in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, the Mexicans would declare war and strain America's war potential, as yet undeveloped, to such an extent that no military help could be given to the Allies. Hall handled this message most skilfully. He had to convince President Wilson that it was genuine, yet, in order to safeguard Room 40, to arouse no suspicion that it had been deciphered by the British intelligence service. When the Zimmermann telegram was published, and the credit given to the American intelligence service, it did much to influence the American decision to declare war on Germany. At a later stage of the war Hall employed the same safeguards when his staff deciphered a series of messages to Berlin from the German minister in the Argentine in which he recommended that merchant shipping should be sunk without trace. The publication of these messages in America severely strained relations between the South American republics and Germany which had hitherto been friendly.

Throughout the war Hall worked in close accord with (Sir) Basil Thomson, assistant commissioner of the metropolitan police. Information in the intercepted messages considerably helped their joint efforts to counter the activities of spies and agents. Hall employed his own agents in Spain, Morocco, and Mexico to counteract the attempts of German agents to refuel and reprovision their submarines. Among the most successful of these agents was A. E. W. Mason. Hall also devised many ruses to deceive the German high command, such as planting false code-books on German agents in Holland and passing false information to Germany by the same means.

Ireland

Thanks to decrypted telegraph traffic between the German foreign ministry and its embassy in Washington, Hall was in receipt of much intelligence regarding Ireland, and Sir Roger Casement's attempts to obtain German support for an uprising.[1] Room 40 intercepted at least thirty-two messages dealing concerning German support for the Nationalist movement. On 9 April, 1916, the 1,400 ton steamer Libau, masquerading as the Norwegian Aud, sailed from Lubeck carrying 20,000 captured Russian Mausers, ten machine guns, a million rounds of ammunition and a quantity of explosives. Her destination was Tralee Bay on the west coast of Ireland. On 15 April the ship's mission was betrayed by a signal from Nauen asking, "… whether German auxiliary cruiser vessel, which is to bring weapons to Ireland has actually …" The Libau reached Tralee Bay on 20 May, and failed to make contact with any Sinn Feiners.[2] She was sighted by the Bluebell, and ordered into Queenstown. The German ship followed, stopped, then scuttled herself.[3]

Casement himself followed the arms shipment on 12 April with two companions in the U-20 from Wilhelmshaven.

Zimmerman Telegram

Intrigue at the Admiralty

In his memoirs, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Oliver (Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff in 1917) recounted a tale regarding Hall:

In December 1917 there was evidence to me that there was some underground work going on. One evening about 10.30 p.m. some Officers were talking in my room about Admiralty affairs and one of them referred to someone as "Judas Iscariot" and I asked who he was and was told it was Hall who was mixed up with political people in high places and did not support Jellicoe.[4]

Also in his memoirs, Oliver alleged that Hall had planted agents in the Naval Barracks who had taken far too seriously the "hot air" of Hostilities Only ratings, with the result that Oliver (then Rear-Admiral Commanding the Battle Cruiser Squadron) was summoned to London and told by Wemyss that his men "were hatching a mutiny and would refuse to go to sea." Oliver dismissed the claim as a "mares nest."[5]

Retirement & Politics

Hall had been promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral on 27 April, 1917.[6] He retired on 3 February, 1919 and succeeded Lord Birkenhead as Unionist candidate for the West Derby Division of Liverpool.[7] Ill health hampered his political career, but on the few occasions on which he addressed the House on naval subjects he commanded a respectful hearing through his obvious sincerity and his detailed and inside knowledge of international and imperial affairs. In March 1923 Hall became principal agent of the Conservative Party, an office which he held until after the Conservative losses at the general election of December. The qualities which had stood him in such good stead as director of naval intelligence were other than those required in a principal political agent when his party's fortunes were on the wane, and he was not well suited for the post. He lost his seat at the election but re-entered Parliament in 1925 as member for Eastbourne. Ill health caused his retirement from politics at the general election of 1929. He died in London 22 October 1943.

Hall married in 1894 Ethel Wootton (died 1932), daughter of (Sir) William de Wiveleslie Abney. They had one daughter and two sons, both of whom became naval officers, the elder dying in 1942.

A drawing of Hall by Francis Dodd is in the Imperial War Museum. A crayon drawing by Louis Raemaekers is in the possession of the family. A bust by Lady Kennet is at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.

Assessment

There can be, it would seem, no doubt that Sir William Reginald Hall was a clever man. However, two points must stand out in an any account of his life. The first is his alleged, vindictive shortsightedness which led to the Easter Rising in Ireland and much needless slaughter and grief. This requires little further comment, and if true demands universal condemnation.

The other point concerns a story, perhaps apocryphal, which Hall was found of recounting, whereby during the war a German spy whom he had helped to capture was given a lenient sentence by a judge. The judge had decided that the spy's offence, passing information back to Germany on the location of British factories, mattered little as they were "targets of no military importance." Hall decided to teach the judge a lesson and supposedly sent a report in the spy's name giving the judge's country home as the site of a factory. At a dinner not long afterwards Hall was sat next to the judge in question, who complained that his home had become the target of zeppelin bombings and he had only just escaped with his life. Hall replied, "Well, it was not a target of any military importance was it?"[8] It is perhaps worth noting that the judge in question, Justice Sir Reginald More Bray (1842-1923), was a well regarded jurist and in his seventies during the war.[9]

Footnotes

  1. Andrew. Her Majesty's Secret Service. pp. 246-247.
  2. Beesley. Room 40. p. 187.
  3. James. The Eyes of the Navy. p. 111.
  4. "Oliver Typescript Memoir." II. p. 198.
  5. "Oliver Typescript Memoir." II. p. 210.
  6. London Gazette: no. 30042. p. 4095. 1 May, 1917.
  7. "Admiral Hall's Retirement" (Official Appointments and Notices). The Times. Saturday, 15 February, 1919. Issue 42025, col G, pg. 13.
  8. Beesley. Room 40. pp. 37-38.
  9. "A Strong Judge" (News). The Times. Friday, 23 March, 1923. Issue 43297, col D, pg. 15.

Bibliography

  • Andrew, Christopher (1986). Her Majesty's Secret Service: The Making of the British Intelligence Community. New York: Viking. ISBN 0-670-80941-1.
  • Beesly, Patrick (1982). Room 40: British Naval Intelligence 1914–1918. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-281468-0.
  • James, Admiral Sir William Milbourne (1956). The Eyes of the Navy: A Biographical Study of Admiral Sir Reginald Hall. London: Methuen & Co..
  • Ramsay, David (2008). 'Blinker' Hall: Spymaster: The Man who Brought America into World War I. Stroud: The History Press. ISBN 1862274657.

Papers

Service Record


Naval Offices
Preceded by
New Position
Inspecting Captain of Mechanical Training Establishments
1906 – 1907
Succeeded by
Edmund Hyde Smith
Preceded by
New Command
Commanding Officer,
H.M.S. Queen Mary

1913 – 1914
Succeeded by
Cecil I. Prowse
Preceded by
Henry F. Oliver
Director of Naval Intelligence
1914 – 1919
Succeeded by
Hugh F. P. Sinclair