Introduction
In researching my family tree some 30-40 years ago I was able to construct an extensive ancestral diagram – at least of the Devon and Cornwall side of my family – dating back to tin mines in Cornwall in the 1640’s. This research included interviews with family members, most of whom have since died.
My mother is still alive, and about to celebrate her 89th birthday. She often remembers with fondness the relative she considered as a child to be her ‘favourite’, primarily because of her kindness and understanding. The relative in question was her grandmother, Susan Brinicombe (née Hall), who sadly died at the age of 51 when my mother was only 8 years old.
At the time of my research in the early 2000’s I became aware of two mysteries that I left unresolved. The first was how a young woman from Penzance came to marry a young man in Newton Abbot; not unusual at all today but somewhat curious in 1914. The second mystery relates to the presence of a grand-child in the Hall household at the time of the 1911 census, with no clue as to who the mother or father was.
In returning to my research on the Hall family in 2025 I was able to throw some light on the second mystery that led me to learn of a wholly unexpected and shocking tragedy.
Susan Hall – my great-grandmother
William and Susan Hall were married in 1883 (or possibly 1884 – I have been unable to find a marriage record). The 1911 census records that they had 10 children, but I have been able to find records for only 7. It is quite likely that the missing three were born – and died – between censuses, something that, sadly, was not at all uncommon at the time.
My great-grandmother – Susan Hall – was the third daughter of William and Susan and born in 1893. By the time of the 1901 census she was 8 years old and had a six-month old baby sister – Lilian Ladysmith.
Who is the mother and father of Archie?
Our first mystery appears in the 1911 census: a boy who is aged 1 but who I am fairly sure was born in 1909. He is described as a ‘grand-son’ but I have been unable to find any clue as to who his parents might be. There is no reason to suppose that baby Archibald was adopted, so we must assume his mother – or possibly father – was a son or daughter in the family. There are only three potential candidates: Mabel Hall, who would have been about 24 at the time of his birth, William Hall (jnr.) who would have been 22 – and Susan, who would have been 17.
It would seem likely that, at the beginning of the twentieth century, having a child out of wedlock was frowned upon by society in general but especially within the family. I know from talking to older relatives that many of them – but not all – were very conservative in terms of their views on such matters.
Hot on the heels of our first mystery – who were the parents of baby Archie – comes the second mystery: what made Susan leave the comfort of her extended family, friends and town she knew well to marry a man and settle 110 miles away?
Below: family outing in the early 1920’s. Left to right: Edward (William) Brinicombe, William Hall, Susan Brinicombe and their friend Charlie Nichols.
Edward – or William as he was known in the family – made wooden toys for me as a child. I particularly remember a toy train he made that I rode up and down the backyard at my grandmother’s house – probably to the annoyance of the neighbours!
You may be thinking that these two mysteries could be linked. Susan’s occupation at the time of the 1911 census, when she was 18, was domestic servant. Now, we all know stories of how middle-class men preyed on young working-class staff in their employ at that time (and, sadly, for many decades thereafter). Could Archie be Susan’s son?
The evidence is purely circumstantial. However, you might think that Susan leaving the family home and moving away to get married in 1914 in Newton Abbot (Devon) solved a family problem. Swept it under somebody else’s carpet so to speak. However, young Archie remained in Penzance at the family home, where he was 12 years old at the time of the 1921 census. Would Susan really abandon her son? Of all the many conversations, chats, heart-to-hearts that myself or my mother had over decades with family who knew Susan, there was no mention at all of her having a child before she was married. In fact there was no mention of Archie at all.
At the end of the day we must accept that we may never know who the mother or father of Archie was. But what became of him? In 2025 my researches found a truth that was so tragic that I spent days checking and re-checking the evidence.
What happened to Archie?
William Hall died in 1916, so by the time of the 1921 census Susan Hall (snr.) was the ‘head of household’ and recorded as a ‘widower’. Mabel (36), William jnr. (33) and Archie (12) were living in the family home. Archie’s parents were recorded as being ‘both alive’.
I tracked down a military record for Archie Hall, born in Penzance on 23rd April 1909. This was almost certainly our man. He had joined the Navy at Plymouth – not uncommon in those days; other members of the family journeyed to Plymouth for the same reason at about the same time.
I was able to discover the names of ships he served on from 1929 to 1931, where his trade was described as ‘errand boy’. I have not been able to find out exactly what is meant by errand boy, other than the obvious, and have left messages with the military archives at Kew to learn more, but nothing has been forthcoming to date. If anyone can shed any light on this I would be very grateful.
I was able to learn that at least one of the ships he was on was headed for China. He was on HMS Seraph, an S-class destroyer sent to Hong Kong in 1927. In 1929, when records show Archie was onboard, the ship was involved in evacuating Christian missionaries from the Chinese Red Army.
I managed to find a document in the National Archives that came as a complete shock. I was not expecting this at all. The document contains the following statement:
Committed suicide by hanging at 39 Haiphong Road (2nd. floor), Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
Archie died on 7th September 1931 thousands of miles from home, aged 22. His ‘character’ on that very day was described, presumably by a senior officer, as ‘VG’, as it had been on two previous occasions in 1929 and 1930. I assume that VG means ‘very good’.
It is also recorded that there was a report of an enquiry into the circumstances of his death, together with a reference number, but I have been unable to learn any further details from the Royal Navy or the National Archives.
This is a very sad end to what is in all probability a very sad story. Something terrible must have happened to poor Archie in the days, weeks and perhaps even years prior to him taking his life. Did he know his parents? Did he come to some harm in the Navy? What mental torment made him take his life so far from home?
Many questions that are unlikely to ever be answered. Other questions are closer to home however. When I told this story to my mother it came as a shock to her too. There was never any mention of Archie within the family. It was as if he did not exist.
But exist he did, and I ‘remember’ him, even if only as a real character in an imagined but not entirely fictional story.
The mystery remains.
Postscript
My mother met Mabel Hall in Newton Abbot in 1950. I get the impression she never married and I have been unable to find any evidence that she was. At the time of her death in Penzance, just a few months after her pilgrimage to Devon – she was still Mabel Hall.
I have other family photos if any member of the family would be interested in seeing them – contact me for details.
Colin Anderson 
Any thoughts? Leave a comment!