A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Hall, Edward (b)
HALL. (Lieutenant, 1813. f-p., 9; h-p., 32.)
Edward Hall entered the Navy, 6 April, 1806, as Midshipman, on board the Trusty 50, Capt. Brian Hodgson, in which ship, with the exception of a few months passed in 1806 in the Musquito sloop, Capt. Sam. Jackson, he served until March, 1808, when, having previously attended the expedition to Copenhagen, and participated in several skirmishes with the batteries and flotilla on the French coast, he joined the Ranger 18, Capt. Geo. Acklom. During a continuance of nearly six years in that vessel he made surveys of different ports and harbours in the Kattegat, Baltic, Sound, Great and Little Belt, &c., all of which were transmitted to the Hydrographical Office at the Admiralty by Sir Geo. Hope, the Captain of the Fleet. On one occasion he came into contact with the Danish gunboats at Fladstrand, and in 1809 he was present at the capture of the island of Anholdt. In the summers of 1811 and 1812 we find him cruizing in command of a tender off the ports of Pillau and Danzig against the enemy’s privateers, from which service he was removed for the express purpose of surveying the river Dwina, preparatory to the employment of English and Russian gun-boats at the defence of Riga, where, during the absence of the Flag-Lieutenant, he officiated on shore as aide-de-camp to the present Sir Thos. Byam Martin, who recommended him in consequence to the notice of the Admiralty. In the winter of 1812-13, after an officer superior to him in rank had failed in the attempt, Mr. Hall was selected from the squadron, then frozen up at Carlskrona, to be the bearer of despatches from Mr. Thornton, the British Minister at Stockholm, to Lord Cathcart, who was at the time at the Imperial head-quarters of the Russian army in Poland. The Earnest gun-brig having been cut out of the ice to convey him across the Baltic, he landed on the coast of Prussia, and, after travelling by a circuitous route through 500 miles of country, occupied in many parts by the enemy, into whose hands he was in continual danger of falling and being treated as a spy, he succeeded in five days in accomplishing the object of his mission. On his return with despatches from Lord Cathcart to Mr. Thornton he was again officially recommended both by that nobleman and by his Commodore, Capt. Acklom. During the remaining nine months of 1813 he acted as aide-de-camp to H.R.H. the Duke of Wurtemberg at the siege of Danzig, with a view of keeping up the communication between the Russian army and the Anglo-Russian squadron blockading that port. The services he performed during that period procuring him a further recommendation from Lord Cathcart and Capt. Acklom, as well as from the Duke and from the Russian Admiral, he was promoted on his return to England to a Lieutenancy, 15 Dec. 1813, in the Rattler 18, Capt. Henry Bourne, with whom he served on the North America and West India station until 25 Jan. 1815. He has since been on half-pay.
Lieut. Hall (who appears to have been employed on many important missions by his late Majesty when Duke of Clarence) married, 21 Sept. 1826, Sarah Miles, daughter of the late John Smith, Esq., of Liverpool. Agents – Messrs. Halford and Co.