Admiral Sir William Reginald Hall (28 June 1870 – 22 October 1943) was the British Director of Naval Intelligence (DNI) from 1914 to 1919. Events 1098 - Fighters of the First Crusade defeat Kerbogha of Mosul. Year 1870 ( MDCCCLXX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 202 BC - Hannibal Barca, leader of the Carthaginians, is defeated by the Roman legions under Scipio Africanus Year 1943 ( MCMXLIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Naval Intelligence Division ( NID) was the intelligence arm of the British Admiralty before the establishment of a unified Defence Staff in 1965 Together with Sir Alfred Ewing he was responsible for the establishment of the Royal Navy's codebreaking operation, Room 40, which decoded the Zimmerman telegram, a major factor in the entry of the United States in World War I. Sir James Alfred Ewing KCB ( 27 March 1855 - 7 January 1935) was a Scottish Physicist and Engineer, best known The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore known as the Senior Service) Cryptanalysis (from the Greek kryptós, "hidden" and analýein, "to loosen" or "to untie" is the study of methods for In the History of cryptography, Room 40 (latterly NID25) was the room in the Admiralty most identified with the British Cryptography effort during The Zimmermann Telegram (or Zimmermann Note; German: Zimmermann-Depesche; Spanish: Telegrama Zimmermann) was a coded The United States of America —commonly referred to as the World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All
The son of Captain William Henry Hall, the first head of Naval Intelligence, Hall entered the Navy in 1884. He was promoted to Commander in 1898 and became Captain in 1905. Commander is a Military rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service He was an inspector of mechanical training from 1906-07; and from 1911-13 he served as Assistant Comptroller of the Royal Navy. A comptroller or controller (kənˈtroʊlər ˈkɑmˌtroʊ- also financial controller, abrv In between he commanded the cadet training ship Cornwall, the armoured cruiser HMS Natal and the battle cruiser HMS Queen Mary in 1913-1914. A cruiser is a large type of Warship, which had its prime period from the late 19th century to the end of the Cold War. Career Natal was built at Barrow by Vickers Maxim She was launched on the 30th September 1905 and finally completed on the 5th March 1907 Battlecruisers were large Warships in the first half of the 20th century that were first introduced by the British Royal Navy. He introduced many reforms, including the now standard three-watch system, in which one-third of the crew would be on shipboard duty at any one time.
His seagoing career cut short by ill-health, Hall was appointed DNI by the Admiralty in October 1914 (allegedly after some intensive lobbying by his wife (Beesly 1982)) and served in that capacity until January 1919 when he retired from active duty. The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. It turned out to be fortituous appointment, for he was responsible for building up the naval intelligence organization during the war, encouraged codebreaking and radio-intercept efforts and provided the fleet with good intelligence, making the NID the pre-eminent British intelligence agency during the war. He also encouraged cooperation with other British intelligence organizations, such as MI5 (under Vernon Kell), MI6 (under Mansfield Smith-Cumming) and the Special Branch of Scotland Yard (under Basil Thomson). Major-General Sir Vernon George Waldegrave Kell, KBE ( 21 November, 1873 – 27 March, 1942) was the founder and first director The Secret Intelligence Service ( SIS) colloquially known as MI6 is the United Kingdom 's external Intelligence agency. Captain Sir George Mansfield Smith-Cumming KCMG, CB ( 1 April 1859 – 14 June 1923) was the first director of Special Branch is an investigative unit of the British, Irish and many Commonwealth police services New Scotland Yard or Scotland Yard, informally known as The Yard and NSY, is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service, responsible Aside from this, the DNI under his helm provided the evidence needed to arrest Roger Casement as well as the inevitable failure of the Easter Rising in 1916. Roger David Casement (Ruairí Mac Easmainn 1 September 1864 &ndash 3 August 1916 ( Sir Roger Casement CMG between 1911 and until his execution for treason in August The Easter Rising (Éirí Amach na Cásca was a rebellion staged in Ireland in Easter Week, 1916 Its decryptions also led to the capture of Franz von Rintelen, the German sabotage secret agent posted to New York/New Jersey. Franz von Rintelen (died 1949 was a German spy working in the United States during World War I.
He was knighted in 1918, perhaps partly due to his work on the Zimmerman telegram. The Zimmermann Telegram (or Zimmermann Note; German: Zimmermann-Depesche; Spanish: Telegrama Zimmermann) was a coded He was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1917, then to Vice Admiral in 1922 and to full Admiral in 1926. Rear admiral is a Naval Commissioned officer rank above that of a Commodore and Captain, and below that of a Vice Admiral. Vice Admiral is a naval rank equivalent to Lieutenant General in seniority Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks of the highest Naval officers
Upon retirement Hall served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool West Derby from 1919 to 1923, then for Eastbourne 1925-29. The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is a Political party in the United Kingdom. A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a Parliament. Liverpool West Derby is a Borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Eastbourne is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. As an MP, in 1919 he and a group of industrialists founded a group to counter subversive actions against free enterprise known as National Propaganda, which was later renamed the Economic League (UK). The Economic League was an organisation in the United Kingdom dedicated to opposing what they saw as subversion and action against Free enterprise. The Economic League was an organisation in the United Kingdom dedicated to opposing what they saw as subversion and action against Free enterprise. Even in the House of Commons he was still said to be involved in the Zinoviev letter affair in 1924, which led to the victory of the Conservatives in the general election of that year. The House of Commons' is the Lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords The " Zinoviev Letter " is a 1924 letter that was allegedly addressed from Grigori Zinoviev, president of the presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist The 1924 UK general election was held on 29 October 1924 The Conservatives, led by Stanley Baldwin performed dramatically better in electoral terms than in In the 1920s and 1930s he travelled extensively in the United States to give lectures on intelligence gathering matters. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Too old to return to active service on the outbreak of World War II, Hall nevertheless served in the British Home Guard until his death. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The British Home Guard (initially "Local Defence Volunteers" or LDV, or in slang Look-Duck-Vanish, hence the name change was a defence
Hall was described by the U. S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James Walter Hines Page as a "clear case of genius", a testament to his loyalty, skill and competence, qualities needed at a such a critical period of time. The Court of St James's is the name of the Royal court of the United Kingdom. Walter Hines Page ( August 15, 1855 - December 21, 1918) was an American Journalist, Publisher, and Diplomat On the other hand, American attaché Edward Bell described him as "a perfectly marvelous person but the coldest-hearted proposition that ever was — he'd eat a man's heart and hand it back to him. "
He was known as "Blinker" on account of a chronic facial twitch, which caused one of his eyes to "flash like a Navy signal lamp". His daughter attributed this to childhood malnutrition. (He had attended a military boarding school in which the boys had to fill their bellies by stealing turnips from neighboring farms. )