Anthony Basil McKellar HALL

HALL, Anthony Basil McKellar

Service Number: 213
Enlisted: 22 August 1914, Adelaide, South Australia
Last Rank: Sergeant
Last Unit: 10th Infantry Battalion
Born: Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia, 11 December 1894
Home Town: Adelaide, South Australia
Schooling: St Peter's Collegiate School, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Occupation: Engineering student
Died: Killed in Action, Gallipoli, 18 May 1915, aged 20 years
Cemetery: Lone Pine Cemetery, ANZAC
Plot II, Row A, Grave No. 21
Memorials: Adelaide National War Memorial, Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Broken Hill Barrier District Roll of Honour, Broken Hill War Memorial, Hackney St Peter's College Fallen Honour Board
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World War 1 Service

22 Aug 1914: Involvement AIF WW1, Sergeant, 213, 10th Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1,

--- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Ascanius embarkation_ship_number: A11 public_note: ''

22 Aug 1914: Enlisted AIF WW1, Adelaide, South Australia
20 Oct 1914: Embarked AIF WW1, Sergeant, 213, 10th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ascanius, Adelaide
12 Mar 1915: Involvement AIF WW1, Sergeant, 213, 10th Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli

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Biography

Anthony Basil McKellar Hall of Broken Hill, New South Wales and his brother Reginald attended the School and while there, Anthony proved to be an excellent shot.

In 1910, he represented the School in the Sargood shooting competition and scored 69 points out of a possible 70, a record that was unbeaten in Schools of the Empire competitions. He was also a particularly good tennis player, the School swimming champion and the vice-captain for the Schools of the Empire Team in 1913.

After leaving the School, he studied electrical engineering at Adelaide University and at the time of enlistment was a sergeant in the 78th Infantry.

He enlisted on 22 August 1914 and although only 19 years of age was made an acting sergeant in C Company under the command of Lieutenant Keith Green (OS) who was killed on the day of the landing.

Sergeant Hall was transferred to B Company while in Egypt, and in the early fighting at Anzac on 25 April was slightly wounded but recovered quickly and returned to the firing line. When speaking about this brave 20 year old sergeant later, Colonel Weir described him as ‘cool and collected under fire and an excellent NCO, who would, doubtless soon have received a commission.’ [i]

Anthony’s family later received a letter from one of his many friends in which he described how in a previous enemy attack Hall had bravely remained at his post.

Sergeant Hall held alone, until reinforcements were brought up, a trench, all the men associated with him being either killed or too seriously wounded to help. [ii]

His younger brother and only sibling Reginald enlisted in March 1916 but in April 1917 after the death of his father was returned to Australia for discharge on compassionate grounds.



[i] St  Peter’s School Magazine - W K Thomas & Co, Adelaide, 1923, p. 25
[ii] ibid, August 1915, p. 66

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