Halley Jack Lieut

SKR/DAT/IP/20702

Halley Jack Lieut

2000-2024

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Surname: Halley;

Forename(s): Jack;

Initials: J;

Rank: Lieut;

Resided in: Bradford;

Previous Battalion: 13 of;

Previous Regiment: Worcs Regt;

MGC Branch: Infantry;

MGC Unit: 25 Coy;

How killed: KIA;

Where: France;

When killed: 26-Jul-1916;

Other Data: HALLE, Lieutenant, JACK JACOB, 13th Battalion. Worcestershire Regiment attd. 25th Company. Machine Gun Corps (Inf). 26th July 1916. Age 23. Son of Maurice and Frances Halle, of Bradford, Yorks. IV. H. 3. (Vermelles British Cemetery - Pas De Calais, France).

Lieut. Jack Halley Worcestershire Regiment, was killed on July 26th in France. He was the younger son of the late Maurice von Halle and Mrs Halle, of Bradford, and was a member of
the firm of L.N. Hardy & Co., Bradford. He received a commission in the West Yorkshire Regiment (T.F.) early in 1914, and on the outbreak of war mobilised with that regiment.. In 1915 he trandferred to the Worcestershire Regiment, and went with them to the front in August, 1915 being there attached to the Machine Gun Corps. Lieut. Hailey was 25 years of age and was an old Bradford Grammar School Boy and also an old boy of La Villa, Ouchy, Lausanne, Swtizerland. The Captain of his company says of him :- "He was a very gallant office and he met a very gallant death. I had the highest opinion of his bravery and capabilities, and he will be a very great loss to me and the machine gun Company. (Berrows Worcester Journal 12/8/16)

26/7/16 (Trenches)
Indirect fire was carried out in roads and junctions and enemy communication trenches behind their lines. The DUMP was also fired on.

27/7/16 (Trenches)
Indirect fire was carried out on the following points a.30b, 5.2, a.29 road junction G.5.a.2.8, G.6.b.08, A.30.a.04 - a.30.b.5.2
One of our emplacements was heavily shelled and finally blown in. Lt JJ Halley, Worcester Regt attd MG Corps and 1 other rank were killed by a shell in the trench.

Jack was born in 1893, the fifth child of Moritz von Halle and Frances Lawrence Moss. Moritz, also known as ’Morris’, was a German Jew, a cloth merchant from Hamburg and a member of Bradford’s significant German community. He became a naturalized British subject in 1870. He was aged thirty-two when in 1873 he married Frances, from Canada. She was eighteen, and had been living with her uncle in London. Their eldest child was a son, Lawrence. Three daughters followed, and then after a long gap came Jack. He was the baby of the family, twenty years younger than his brother, and doubtless doted on by his sisters. Moritz’s partnership with Ludwig Nathan Hardy came to an end in 1893, however he continued to trade under the name L. N. Hardy & Co., with premises on Burnett Street in Little Germany (now converted into luxury flats). By this time, Lawrence was already his apprentice. When Moritz died in 1910, Lawrence took over the business. The family were members of the Bradford Reform Synagogue on Bowland Street, Manningham. Lawrence was admitted to the Pentalpha Masonic Lodge in 1903. Jack was a pupil at Bradford Grammar School from 1902, when he was nine, until 1907, leaving when he was fourteen. His academic record was variable, causing him to repeat his third year. His best subject was consistently Art, for which he several times won prizes. From B.G.S. he was sent to Lausanne in Switzerland to complete his education. What came next is not known - perhaps he joined his brother’s wool cloth exporting business. The impact of war against Germany caused Jack’s family to modify their surname. They dropped the German ’von’ and called themselves simply ’Halle’ (which is how Jack’s name appears on the school war memorial). He further adopted the spelling ’Halley’, with the result that he appears in military records under both forms. He enlisted early following the outbreak of war and received a commission in the 6th Battalion West Yorkshire Territorials. However, he did not accompany them to France in April 1915, and instead was transferred to the 13th Battalion Worcester Regiment at Plymouth. This was designated as a training unit to send men to other units at the front. Jack was attached to the 25th Company of the newly formed Machine Gun Corps and he finally entered the theatre of war in France in August 1915. The M.G.C. had the unenviable nickname of ‘the suicide club’. The operation of the Vickers medium machine guns with which it was equipped required intelligent officers with skill at mathematics, trigonometry and calculus as well as at arms. Halley was promoted to Lieutenant with command of a section of two machine guns.The 25th Company was attached to the 25th Infantry brigade, part of 8th Division. This incurred the greatest losses of any division on 1st July attacking Ovillers. By late July, the front had been pushed forward to Pozieres, and the 25th Machine-Gun Company was in the line giving supporting fire. His Captain wrote to Frances Halle after Jack’s death:- ‘He was killed on about 7.30 p.m. on the 26th inst. while on duty in the trenches; his death was instantaneous and he did not suffer at all. He had been carrying out machine-gun indirect fire, and the Germans commenced to shell his position. He moved his gun and team to a position of safety, and then went to see what damage had been done to the gun-emplacement, when a shell burst about five yard from him, killing both him and his corporal. He was a very gallant officer ...’Jack Halley and Corporal Clarke lie side by side in Vermelles British Cemetery, which is some distance from the Somme battlefield, to which their bodies must later have been removed. Photo (https://www.bradfordgrammar.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/WW1-biography-Jack-Jacob-Halle-26-July-16.pdf)

History of Bowland Street Synagogue: Bradford was unique in this country in building a Reform synagogue before it acquired an Orthodox synagogue. It was built for a progressive German Jewish congregation attracted to the city by the developing textile industry. Upon affiliation with the West London Synagogue of British Jews in 1878, a former timber yard on the south side of Bowland Street was purchased for £700. Building work commenced on 5 January 1880 and consecration took place on 29 March 1881. The cost was `somewhat under £2,000'. The architects were Francis and Thomas Healey, known chiefly for their designs, alterations, and additions of numerous churches in Yorkshire. Bradford was only the third purpose-built Reform synagogue in Britain. The first was Park Place, Manchester (Edward Salomons 1857-8), destroyed in the Blitz in June 1941, and the second was the West London Synagogue, Upper Berkeley Street (1870). No further non-Orthodox synagogues were constructed before World War I, 3 were built in the Inter-War period, and progressive synagogues became more common after 1945.

HALLEY Jack (formerly called Jack von Halle) of Rossefield Heaton Bradford a temporary lieutenant in the Lincolnshire regiment died 26 July 1916 on active military service in
France Probate Wakefield 2 November to Laurence Halle merchant and Angel Henry Hart stockbroker. Effects £22342 18s. 5d. (National Probate Calendar - Index of Wills and Administrations)

Lieut. Jack Halley, of Rossefield, Heaton. Bradford. a member of the firm of L N. Hardy and Co. Bradford, stuff merchants. who was killed in France July 26th last, younger son of the late Maurice Von Halle, left estate valued at £22.342 18s 5d. gross with net personalty £22.322 17s. 2d. Probate of his will dated 29th July, 1914. has been granted to his brother, Mr. Lawrence Halley, of 1. Burnett St., Vicar Lane, Bradford, merchant, and Mr. Angel Henry Hart, of 9, Old Broad Street, E.C., stockbroker. The testator left £100 to the Bradford Children's Hospital, £100 to the Bradfod Incorporated Institute for the Blind, £100 to the Bradford City Guild of Hope, £100 to St. Catherine’s Home for Cancer and Incurables, £100 to the Gentlewomen's Employment Association, Leeds, £25 to Robert Nellest, £25 to Kate Walthers, £10 to Ben Waterhouse, £500 to his mother, £150 each to the executors, and the residue in trust for his brother and sisters. (Bradford Weekly Telegraph - Friday 24 November 1916 p7)

HALLE Frances of Rossefield Bradford widow died 9 October 1923 Probate Wakefield 16 November to Lawrence Halle merchant and Nelly Blundell (wife of Paul Blundell). Effects £9746 0s. 3d. (National Probate Calendar - Index of Wills and Administrations)

VON HALLE Moritz of Rossefield Heaton Bradford died 30 January 1910 Probate London 19 March to Frances Von Halle widow and Lawrence Von Halle Oliver Whitehead and Louis Joseph Nathan merchants. Effects £159,629 16s. 7d. (National Probate Calendar - Index of Wills and Administrations)

1911 Census
Jack Von Halle
Age: 18
Occupation: Clerk
Address: 2 Park Drive Heaton Bradford - the dwelling had 16 rooms
Estimated Birth Year: 1887
Where Born: Bradford, Yorkshire
Mother's Name: Frances Von Halle 56, widow, b. Montreal, Canada
Lawrence Von Halle 38, woollen merchant - employer, b. Bradford, Yorks
Amy Von Halle 30, b. Bradford, Yorks
Nelly Von Halle 28, b. Bradford, Yorks
Kate Haenlein 40, maid
Charlotte Moses 34, maid
Elizabeth Skipworth 28, cook
Harriet Walkins 21, maid
His parents had been married for 28 years - 6 of their 6 children had survived.

1901 Census
Jack Von Halle
Age: 9
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1892
Address: 2 Park Drive Heaton Bradford
Father: Moritz Von Halle, 60, cloth merchant - employer, b. Germany (British subject)
Mother: Frances Von Halle, 46, b. Canada
Birth Place: Bradford, Yorkshire
Lawrence Von Halle 27, commercial traveller
Amy Von Halle 24, b. Bradford, Yorks
Maud Von Halle 21, b. Bradford, Yorks
Nelly Von Halle 18, b. Bradford, Yorks
Kate Haenlei 30, nurse
Clara Dale 28, cook
Helen Brown 27, housemaid
Kate Preston 21, housemaid

Extract from 25 Coy MGC War Diary

26/7/16 (Trenches)
Indirect fire was carried out in roads and junctions and enemy communication trenches behind their lines. The DUMP was also fired on.

27/7/16 (Trenches)
Indirect fire was carried out on the following points a.30b, 5.2, a.29 road junction G.5.a.2.8, G.6.b.08, A.30.a.04 - a.30.b.5.2
One of our emplacements was heavily shelled and finally blown in. Lt JJ Halley, Worcester Regt attd MG Corps and 1 other rank were killed by a shell in the trench.;

Other Notes: HALLE, Lieutenant, JACK JACOB, 13th Bn. Worcestershire Regiment attd. 25th Coy. Machine Gun Corps (Inf). 26th July 1916. Age 23. Son of Maurice and Frances Halle, of Bradford, Yorks. IV. H. 3. Vermelles British Cemetery - Pas De Calais, France.;

END OF RECORD.

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