Hall, Thomas Anthony English (Tony)

Date of birth:: August 12th, 1912 (Windermere/Westmorland, United Kingdom)
Service number:: 124305
Nationality:: British

Biography

Before the outbreak of the Second World War, Tony Hall travelled extensively through Norway, Sweden, and France. He studied in Sweden and worked as a lumberjack, and at one point took part as a civilian in a failed military operation in Finland. Prior to his enlistment, Hall was employed by the BBC.

He joined the British Army as a Private in the Irish Guards, rising through the ranks to Sergeant and later Lieutenant. Hall was selected for No. 62 Commando, also known as the Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF), and took part in Operation Aquatint in September 1942—a covert raid on the Normandy coast.

During the operation, Hall sustained serious injuries. He was struck on the back of the head by a German soldier wielding the heavy end of a stick grenade and had already been wounded in the leg by grenade shrapnel. Left behind on the beach, he was later found and taken into German custody. The captured commandos were sent to the Standortkommandantur in Vierville and Hall was transferred to the military hospital in Caen due to the severity of his wounds.

He spent the remainder of the war in a German prisoner-of-war camp and was liberated in 1945. Upon returning to England, Hall underwent surgery at Radcliffe Hospital and lived with lasting injuries. In postwar life, he became an antique dealer and ran a shop in Clifton.

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