William Hall’s guns at Lucknow won him the VC in 1857

On Nov. 16, 1857, a Nova Scotia-born sailor named William Hall helped keep a 24-pounder gun firing at point-blank range against the walls of a fortified mosque in Lucknow, India, and became the first Black recipient of the Victoria Cross, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia.

The 169th anniversary of that day falls on Nov. 16. The Royal Canadian Navy says the action came at mid-day, when the naval brigade from HMS Shannon, led by Capt. William Peel, dragged heavy guns up to the wall of the Shah Najaf compound during the relief of the city in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The Canadian Encyclopedia and Veterans Affairs Canada spell the mosque’s name in slightly different ways, but all four sources reviewed for this article place the action on the same date.

Hall’s story begins in Nova Scotia. The Canadian Encyclopedia says he was born at Horton Bluff, in the Annapolis Valley, to Jacob and Lucy Hall, who had been enslaved in the United States and were carried to Halifax in British warships at the end of the War of 1812. Those arrivals are the people described in our earlier report on the nearly 2,000 Black Refugees who reached Nova Scotia after 1814. Sources differ on his exact birth year: the Canadian Encyclopedia gives 1829, while Veterans Affairs Canada gives 1827.

He went to sea as a teenager. The Canadian Encyclopedia says he served in the merchant marine and spent time in the United States Navy before joining the Royal Navy in 1852. He fought on land in the Crimean War as part of a naval brigade, and he is recorded as receiving British and Turkish Crimea medals with clasps for Sevastopol and Inkerman. In 1856 he was assigned to HMS Shannon, which was bound for China when it was redirected to Calcutta as the rebellion spread.

At Lucknow, the Royal Canadian Navy says, Hall volunteered to replace a missing man in the crew of a 24-pounder. Rebel fire was heavy. The navy account says that of the Shannon gun crews, only Hall and one officer, Lt. Thomas Young, were left standing at the gun. Veterans Affairs Canada gives the officer’s first name as James. The two kept firing until the wall was breached and the infantry could enter.

The Canadian Encyclopedia and the navy both say Peel recommended Hall and Young for the Victoria Cross. The citation, as quoted by Veterans Affairs Canada, appeared in the London Gazette on Feb. 1, 1859. Hall received the medal on Oct. 28, 1859, aboard HMS Donegal in Queenstown Harbour, Ireland.

The Canadian Encyclopedia describes him as the first Black person, the first Nova Scotian and the first Canadian naval recipient of the medal. Veterans Affairs Canada says he was the first Black person in the British Empire to receive it and the third Canadian. The two descriptions of the “Canadian” distinction differ, and neither source disputes that he was the first Black recipient.

His career continued afterward. The navy says he served on several ships, including Bellerophon, Hero, Impregnable, Petrel and Royal Adelaide, and retired in 1876. The Canadian Encyclopedia and Veterans Affairs Canada say he returned to a farm in the Hantsport area, where he lived with his sisters. Both also report that in 1901 the Duke of Cornwall and York, later King George V, noticed his medals during a visit to the province and spoke with him.

Hall died on Aug. 25, 1904, according to both the Canadian Encyclopedia and Veterans Affairs Canada. Both say he was first buried without military honours, and the grave was unmarked. He was later reburied on the grounds of the Hantsport Baptist Church after a Royal Canadian Legion campaign, and a cairn with an enlarged replica of his Victoria Cross was erected there. The two sources give different years for the reburial, 1945 and 1954, and this report does not settle which is correct.

Recognition has come slowly. Canada Post issued a stamp in his honour in 2010. The Canadian Encyclopedia says the navy announced on June 26, 2015, that an Arctic patrol vessel would carry his name, and that HMCS William Hall was commissioned on May 16, 2024. He was also the honouree for Nova Scotia Heritage Day in 2024, the encyclopedia says.

His story also sits alongside a harder history. Black Canadians who tried to enlist in later wars were often turned away, as detailed in our report on Black volunteers who were turned away until 1916, and earlier Black soldiers had fought for the Crown in the War of 1812, including Richard Pierpoint’s unit at Queenston Heights.

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Sources: The Canadian Encyclopedia; Royal Canadian Navy; Veterans Affairs Canada; CBC News.