Hall, Richard Neville

LE MÉDECIN DIVISIONNAIRE, DOCTEUR GEORGES, DE LA 66^ème DIVISION,
CITE À L'ORDRE DE LA DIVISION:

HALL, Richard, de la Section Sanitaire Américaine N° 3

Le Bon Samaritain qu'était Richard Hall avait pris la décision de voyager beaucoup de concert avec nous, sur notre route, pour tendre une main inlassablement secourable à ceux de nos compatriotes militaires que les hostilités actuelles auraient plongé dans le malheur. Il l'a fait depuis de longs mois avec la constante ténacité que vous savez.

Sur cette route un projectile ennemi l'a tué. Je salue bien bas sa dépouille en lui disant, à lui et à ses émules en dévouement, les membres de la Section Sanitaire Américaine N° 3, mon sentiment de profonde et entière admiration au nom du Service de Santé de la 66ème Division.

Par ordre du Général commandant la 66ème Division, j'épingle à ce cercueil la Croix de Guerre Française avec citation à l'ordre de la Division.

26 décembre 1915

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Born May 18, 1894 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Son of Dr. Louis P. and Elizabeth D. Hall. Educated Ann Arbor schools, University of Michigan, and Dartmouth College, Class of 1915. Joined American Field Service, June 15, 1915; attached Section Three. Killed by shell near Hartsmannsweilerkopf, Alsace night of December 24-25, 1915. Croix de Guerre. Buried Moosch, Alsace.

MORE perhaps than in that of any other there exists in the life and achievement of Richard Nelville Hall a fineness and a poignant glory of self-sacrifice. "What better ideal can we have?" writes an associate in the Field Service, "A strong spirit drawing on a frail body to unselfish work for others."

In 1915, when the Middle West felt only vaguely the throbbing of the Great War, "Dick" showed his spirit by going eagerly along the uncertain path of service. His death brought sharply home to the whole country the bitter reality of the conflict and the necessity of having a share in it. Ambassador Jusserand wrote Dick's parents: "More has been accomplished by your son, in the brief space allotted to him, than can be the fate of millions who lead long, plain, ordinary lives."

As a small boy he said to his mother, after much thinking: "It seems to me it's awfully foolish to let yourself get to wanting something you know you can't have." And this philosophy of his own devising was a guide to his life. For while "he had a good deal to make him happy," yet he was happier in living than many a boy who had much more. On November 11, 1915, Dick wrote from France: "It is rather nice to know I can be happy in the face of some hard and dirty work, even with privations. I am extremely happy . . . . . I am not talking or thinking about Christmas. I don't dare."

At Michigan the words of a friend, who feels himself "a better man for having known Dick," typify the esteem in which Richard Hall was held. His constitution was not, however, robust, and after a year at Ann Arbor, he sought the invigorating open-air life afforded by Dartmouth. Dr. Nichols, the president, wrote his parents: "Certainly not in recent years has a young man of my acquaintance given so fine an example of what a young man ought to do . . . . . His memory will be cherished through many college generations." He completed his college work a month early and sailed for France on June 5, 1915. "Full of enthusiasm, tenderness, and quiet power . . . . . We knew, when he went, that a soldier indeed had gone . . . . "

Lovering Hill, leader of Section Three in Alsace said that Dick became known as its "most refined, likeable, and conscientious" member, "immediately liked by the French people for his sympathy, and respected by the ambulance men for his efficient work." "The ugly facts of war in some mysterious way were consecrating him to the highest ideals of service." "Dick's devotion to duty" Stephen Galatti called "a source of inspiration" and said, "It has been a privilege to be with him continually, at work and at play, to depend on him always, to look for his cheerful smile and to learn patience and kindness from him."

Late in December vicious attacks surged over Hartmannsweilerkopf. "Dick" never faltered, until during the black night of Christmas Eve, on the road up the mountain he was killed by a chance shell, "in the morning of his youth." Just before dawn a comrade found him there, dead beside his shattered ambulance, his hands still clutching the wheel, and his face wearing a smile as though he thought of the Christmas at home. He is buried at Moosch, in the valley of St. Amarin, his grave kept fresh with flowers by the village folk who knew and loved him.

Richard Elliott spoke truly, when he said: "It seems to me Dick had less need of this life than most of us . . . . . Had n't he already found that key to true living which is reflected in our unfailing confidence? How beautifully the mantle of heroism falls about his young life. . . . The lives of all who knew him will always be richer for his having lived."

"There fell a very modest and valiant Gentleman."

• Tribute from Memorial Volume of the American Field Service, 1921

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Brother of Louis Phillips Hall, Jr.