Alfred Daniel Hall (1864-1942), K.C.B. (cr. 1918): Agricultural chemist; scientific administrator; Second Director of JIHI (1927-1939). Elected FRS 1909.

Hall was born in Rochdale, Lancashire the son of a flannel manufacturer. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Balliol College, Oxford where he took a First Class in Natural Sciences (in chemistry). Between 1884 and 1891 he worked as a science master at King Edward VII School, Birmingham; he then ran University Extension courses in Kent, Surrey and Sussex. He was a founder and first Principal of the South-Eastern Agricultural College (Wye College), 1894-1902; Director of Rothamsted Experimental Station, 1902-12; Commissioner under the Development Act, 1909-17; Secretary to the Board of Agriculture, 1917-19; and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Agriculture, 1920-39.

Before joining JIHI Hall’s period at Wye had brought him into contact with the fruit and hop industries; he took a detailed interest in their practical problems. Hall was also well known to farmers and landowners as the author of numerous articles and books on soils, manures and agricultural topics, and had taken a leading role in establishing Britain’s agricultural and horticultural educational, advisory and research facilities. As a Development Commissioner he was able to lay the foundations for Horticultural Research Stations- East Malling and Long Ashton- and as Chief Scientific Adviser to plan for their expansion.

Hall’s connection with JIHI began with his soil survey of the proposed site at Merton in 1909. In 1912, while working at the Ministry of Agriculture, he came to live in Mostyn Road, Merton and from that time was a frequent visitor. He served on the Council of JIHI from 1919-1926. As Director, from 1927-1939, Hall extended the activities of the Institution, adding a new chemistry department and encouraging the growth of the cytology department. He also arranged for the extension of the fruit work, with plantations in new localities. Hall increased the number of exhibitions offered to student gardeners from 8 to 12 and the total staff from 52 to 65. This expansion enabled improvement to be made in the courses of training offered to gardeners, and also broadened the basis of research. Hall affiliated the Institution to the University of London, and introduced biennial summer courses to bring staff into regular contact with teaching and practical research. These courses helped attract new recruits to the staff from all over the country.

Hall was commended by the Royal Horticultural Society obituarist for having ‘brought the highly specialized work of [JIHI] to our notice; horticulturalists are now familiar with chromosomes, triploids and diploids, etc., and of the practical application of this work in horticulture’. Hall’s personal work at JIHI focused on the systematics and genetics of tulips. His book, The Genus Tulipa (1932), was based on the living collections he made at JIHI and was illustrated by H. C. Osterstock. In 1933 he published The Apple with M. B. Crane. After retiring Hall went to live as Principal of a residential boys’ school with a ‘mild rural bias’, The Lord Wandsworth College in Hampshire, where he had been a Trustee since 1916 and Chairman since 1932.

See also:

E. J. Russell, ‘Alfred Daniel Hall, 1864-1942’, Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, 4(1942-1944): 229-250

On Hall as Principal of Wye College, see:

Stewart Richards, Wye College and Its World: a Centenary History (Wye, Kent: Wye College Press, 1994)

On Hall as Principal of Rothamsted, see:

E. J. Russell, A history of agricultural science in Great Britain (London: George Allen, 1966).

On Hall’s work as a Development Commissioner, see:

Robert Olby, ‘Social imperialism and state support for agricultural research in Edwardian Britain’, Annals of Science, 48 (1991): 509-526