Walter Russell Hall
{{Short description|Australian businessman and philanthropist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Walter Russell Hall
| image = Walter Russell Hall.jpg
| caption = Portrait of Walter Hall by Frederick McCubbin
| birth_date = {{birth date|1831|02|22|df=y}}
| birth_place = Kington, Herefordshire, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|1911|10|13|1831|02|22|df=y}}
| death_place = Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| resting_place = Melbourne General Cemetery
| boards = {{bulleted list|Cobb & Co|Mount Morgan Gold Mining Company|Mercantile Mutual|Sydney Meat Preserving Co.}}
| spouse = Eliza Hall
| footnotes = }}
Walter Russell Hall (22 February 1831 – 13 October 1911) was an Australian businessman and philanthropist.
Biography
Image:Hall Darcy 01.jpg, {{circa|1885}}.]]
Hall was born in Kington, Herefordshire, England, eldest son of Walter Hall, glover (later a miller), and his wife Elizabeth Carleton, née Skarratt. He was educated in Kington and Taunton, Somerset.{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |author=King, Hazel |id=A090160b |title=Hall, Walter Russell (1831 - 1911) |volume=9 |year=1983 |pages=168–169}}
Hall arrived in Sydney on 14 February 1852{{Dictionary of Australian Biography|First=Walter and Eliza|Last=Hall|shortlink=0-dict-biogHa-He.html#hall6}} with his two brothers, Thomas Skarratt Hall and James Wesley Hall with little money. Hall was employed for a short time by David Jones and then prospected for gold in Victoria with meagre success. From 1857 he was a major investor and administrator of the Australian stagecoach company Cobb & Co. He was also an original shareholder and director of Mount Morgan Gold Mining Company, incorporated in 1886. Other directorships included the Mercantile Mutual, and the Sydney Meat Preserving Co. Ltd.
Hall married Melbourne born Eliza Rowdon Kirk in 1874.{{cite web |title=Beginning |url=https://www.wehi.edu.au/about/history/beginning |website=WEHI |access-date=6 February 2022}} They had no children. He died at their home in Potts Point, Sydney, in October 1911.{{cite journal |title=Mr. W. R. Hall |journal=The Australasian|date=21 October 1911 |page=63 |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/142952604}}
Legacy
Hall's widow Eliza founded The Walter and Eliza Hall Trust that led to the establishment of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, using funds earned from Hall's business interests to establish the Trust.{{cite web |url=http://www.wehalltrust.org.au/about-us/our-history |title=Our history |work=About us |publisher=The Walter & Eliza Hall Charities |date= |access-date=19 February 2019 }}{{cite web |url=https://www.wehi.edu.au/about/history/beginning |work=About: History |publisher= Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research |title=Beginning |date=2019 |access-date=19 February 2019 }}
The locality of Walterhall beside the Mount Morgan Mine in Central Queensland was named after him.{{cite QPN|48919|Walterhall|locality in Rockhampton Region|accessdate=31 December 2017}}
References
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Category:People from Kington, Herefordshire
Category:19th-century Australian businesspeople
Category:Burials at Melbourne General Cemetery
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