Maurice Hall – PeB 42-50

Submitted Peter Bloomfield (PeB 44-51)

Maurice Hall was the quintessential Old Blue of his era. Not academic but very bright and an outstanding all round sportsman who went on to have a very successful business career.

He was one of the elite few non buttoned Grecians to be House Captain at the time, chosen for high standards of leadership, character and sporting ability which CH then valued as highly as academic ability.

Maurice represented the School in both the 1^st XV, where he excelled as a powerful centre or wing three quarter, and the 1st XI as an all rounder, medium fast bowler and more than a useful batsman. He also excelled in the gymnasium and on the running track at 100, 220 and 440 yards which were the distances at that time. Peele B was blessed with some outstanding sportsmen then and collected a lot of silver trophies for rugby, athletics, swimming and diving and Maurice played a key role in all of them.

He joined the Army on leaving CH and entered Sandhurst in 1951. When I entered in 1952 we found ourselves in the same Company so we were able to play rugby together again as we had done at Housey. He played for OBRFC 1^ST XV for many years, and later in the early 1960’s became captain of the 2^nd XV before a knee injury curtailed his playing career.

Maurice was commissioned in the Royal Engineers in 1952 and left in 1956 to work for  Old Blue Joe Chamberlain who owned a number of companies.

In 1965 he joined Givaudan, the Swiss perfume and flavours company, where he held various senior management positions and served on the management committee until his retirement in 1994.

In retirement Maurice, a devoted family man with a son and daughter, five grandchildren and two great grandchildren, travelled widely with his wife Helen, served as a pension fund trustee, a Samaritan and both he and Helen were elected  CH Governors. He even found time to run the Marathon three times!

In 1996 Maurice and I started the Peele B annual reunion lunch which happily has survived and continues in the safe hands of Ken Mansell.

A devoted Old Blue who never forgot the benefits he received at CH. He will be sadly missed.