Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hall, William Hutcheon
HALL, Sir WILLIAM HUTCHEON (1797?–1878), admiral, entered the navy in October 1811 on board the Warrior, under the command of the Hon. George Byng, afterwards sixth Viscount Torrington, and during the remaining years of the war served continuously in her in the North Sea and the Baltic. In November 1815 he was appointed to the Lyra sloop, with Commander Basil Hall [q. v.], and served in her during her interesting voyage to China in company with Lord Amherst's embassy. Shortly after his return to England in November 1817 he was appointed to the Iphigenia frigate, carrying the broad pennant of Sir Robert Mends on the west coast of Africa, and from her was promoted to be master of the Morgiana sloop. In this rank he continued, actively serving on the West Indian, the Mediterranean, and the home stations, till 1836; when, after studying the steam-engine practically at Glasgow and on board steamers trading to Ireland, he went to the United States, and was for some time employed in steamboats on the Hudson and Delaware. In November 1839 he obtained command of the Nemesis, an iron paddle steamer specially built at Liverpool for the East India Company, fitted with a sliding keel, having a light draught of water, and carrying a comparatively heavy armament. On arriving at Galle after a stormy and tedious passage, she was immediately ordered on to China, and joined the squadron in the Canton river in time to render efficient assistance in the reduction of Chuen-pee fort on 7 Jan. 1841. She was at that time the only steamer present, and during the next two years had a most important share in the several operations of the war; Hall, by his energy and his skilful handling of the frail steamer, winning the special commendation of the officers of the navy under whom he served [see Herbert, Sir Thomas, 1793–1861; Parker, Sir William, 1788–1866]. In consequence of their recommendations, an order in council was obtained permitting his promotion to the rank of lieutenant, his commission being dated back to 8 June 1841; another order in council sanctioned his time served on board the Nemesis being counted as though served in a queen's ship; and on 10 June 1843 he was promoted to be commander. The Nemesis had been paid off at Calcutta, and Hall, returning home overland, was appointed on 1 July 1843 to the royal yacht, from which on 22 Oct. 1844 he was advanced to post rank.
From 1847 to 1850 he commanded the Dragon steam frigate in the Mediterranean; and on 28 Oct. 1849, when Sir William Parker brought the fleet to Besika Bay as a visible promise of support to the Turks against the demands of Austria and Russia in the matter of the Hungarian refugees, he was sent to Constantinople carrying the reassuring news to the British minister (Phillimore, Life of Sir William Parker, iii. 570; cf. Lane-Poole, Life of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, ii. 194, where the date is wrongly given 3 Oct.) In 1847 Hall was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. On the breaking out of the Russian war, not being able to obtain command of a vessel of a rate corresponding to his seniority, he accepted the Hecla, a small paddle steamer, in which he was actively employed in the Baltic in 1854. In the following year, again in the Baltic, he had command of the Blenheim blockship, in which he was present at the bombardment of Sveaborg, and in July was nominated a C.B. He had no further service, but became rear-admiral in 1863; was nominated a K.C.B. in 1867; was advanced to be vice-admiral on the retired list in 1869, and admiral in 1875. He died in London, of apoplexy, on 25 June 1878. He married in 1845 the Hon. Hilare Caroline Byng, third daughter of his first captain, Viscount Torrington, by whom he had one daughter, married in 1879 to Captain C. D. Lucas, R.N., who, as a mate in the Hecla, won the Victoria Cross by throwing a lighted shell overboard, before Bomarsund, on 21 June 1854.
Hall published in 1852 (2nd edit. much enlarged in 1854) an able little pamphlet on ‘Sailors' Homes, their Origin and Progress,’ and in 1876 another on ‘Our National Defences,’ which contains some interesting autobiographical notes. Hall has been often confused with his namesake and contemporary Sir William King Hall [q. v.]: partly to avoid this confusion, and partly in commemoration of his distinguished service in China, he was commonly known in the navy as ‘Nemesis’ Hall.
[Times, 27 June 1878; O'Byrne's Dict. of Nav. Biog.; Proc. of Roy. Geog. Soc. (new ser.), i. 214; Bernard's Narrative of the Voyages and Services of the Nemesis from 1840 to 1843.]