Obituary

1904, December 29th

Mr. James Hall, the well-known shipowner, died yesterday at Dilston, Northumberland. Mr. Hall was born in Newcastle in October, 1826, and was educated at the Royal Grammar School. In 1838 he entered the office of Mr. Thomas Wooster, wharfinger, and after serving the Newcastle, Hamburg, and Rotterdam Steamshipping Company, he became associated in 1841 with Messrs. Palmer, Beckwith, and Co., shipowners. Mr. Hall, afterwards, with his brother, the late Mr. John Hall, formed a partnership with Mr. (now Sir) Charles Mark Palmer in the shipping business, and acted as managing partner. He had under his management the first screw collier, the John Bowes, which practically revolutionized the sea-borne coal trade ; he was associated in the formation of local freight and steamship insurance associations, was identified in the improvement of the river Tyne, and in 1863 initiated a movement for the adoption of a uniform standard measure in selling coal. In the agitation for the abolition of light dues on shipping he took a prominent and active part, and to him was attributed the initiation of the load-line agitation, which Mr. Plimsoll afterwards carried to a successful issue in Parliament. Mr. Hall was the founder of the Wellesley training ship for boys, which has trained many thousands of young seamen in the Tyne. He also founded the Whitley Village Homes for Girls and industrial dwellings in Newcastle. In the cause of charity he was exceedingly generous.

Source: The Times