Richard Hall was born on 24 February 1864 in Spennymoor, County Durham, son of Richard and Mary Hall; his father was the manager of an iron works. He entered Richmond College in 1884, intending to serve overseas, but after a year in Demerara his health failed and he returned to England, serving first in Mildenhall and then in a succession of urban circuits. In 1901 he was appointed to the Canterbury Circuit, where for two years he ministered mainly among the soldiers training to go to the Boer War. In 1903 through the influence of Rev. Dr Henry Pope he was appointed to Chatham. At the time there was no Wesleyan Society in the town. He hired the Town Hall for Sunday worship and held the first service on 27 September 1903. A forceful preacher and able administrator, Hall built the 2000-seat Chatham Wesleyan Central Hall, opened in 1908, and served as its Superintendent until his untimely death at the age of 62 in 1927. From 1924-27 he was also Chairman of the Kent District. Hall was Chaplain to the Naval and Military Forces in the Chatham Garrison and when the First World War broke out, he went to France with the British Expeditionary Force as an Army Chaplain. He was soon given responsibility for Wesleyan Camp Homes in England and France, and he rose to the rank of colonel and was awarded the OBE for his wartime service. When the Royal Air Force was formed in 1918 he was appointed Staff Chaplain. Taken ill at a meeting at Westminster on 14 October 1927, he died the following day and was given a full military funeral at Chatham Central Hall. Hall married in 1890 Hannah Jane Starforth (1866-1958); their eldest child and only son, Joseph Frederick Starforth Hall (1892-1941) served in the Royal West Kent Regiment in the First World War, entered the Wesleyan ministry soon after the War, but seems not to have completed his probation; by 1927 he was in Anglican orders.

Entry written by: DHR
Category: Person
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