Page:Papers of William Shakespeare Hall, 1861–1895.pdf/160

 Roebourne district on behalf of John Wellard. W. S. Hall's party was the only one in the Roebourne district until the arrival of the Withnell family in April 1864. At that time there was no communication with the south other than by occasional and erratic sailing boats. His diary covering the first year gives some insight into the toil and difficulties involved. With much of the developmental work of the property achieved by the end of the second year, he turned to pearling (with Malay and native divers) and business pursuits in Roebourne and Cossack. He married Hannah Boyd Lazenby (1849-1911) and had three children who survived infancy, Henry Ernest Hall (1869-1941), Harold Aubrey Hall (1871-1963) and Hannah Joy F. M. Clifton. Like his father before him W. S. Hall was short in stature, striking looking and of prodigious strength, his death by drowning, after a heart attack whilst swimming late on a hot summer night on 11 February 1995 in Cossack Creek, the newspapers wrote of him as "One of the most brilliant, upright, honest and valued lives that has ever been lived amongst us." Henry Edward Hall, his son William Shakespeare Hall and his grandson Harold Aubrey Hall were all highly knowledgeable of the aborigines, their customs and their language and were singularly successful in their handling of them. Today there are Halls still to be found in the north-west making a continuing contribution to the pastoral industry. At the time of his death William Shakespeare Hall was Chairman of the Cossack Municipality and a wrought iron screen in the Roebourne Anglican Church and a tombstone on his Cossack grave were erected "as a mark of appreciation and respect by the North West Pioneers."

"Thomas Peel of Swan River." by Alexandra Hasluck. Oxford University Press, 1965.

W.S. Hall diaries Gregory Expedition 1861 and first year of establishing Andover Station 1863.