Lieutenant-Colonel Pickard Hall
1st Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (MG)

Pickard was one of the most delightful characters it has ever been my privilege to meet. As handsome in feature as in manners, he was tremendously popular with both officers and men … Another side to his character, which added to his charm, was his love of the “bizarre” and of doing those things which are out of the ordinary. This was no pose. The unusual was to him the spice of existence.

(The Die-Hards, June 1945, 61)

Born in 1910 and educated at Marlborough and the RMC, Sandhurst, John Pickard Hall was commissioned into the Middlesex Regiment in 1930. Overseas postings included Palestine, Egypt, and Singapore. According to one Middlesex officer, “he lived for a long period on detachment with his platoon as the uncrowned king of Nablus, a hotbed of Arab sedition and rebellion.” He returned home to be adjutant at the regimental depot in 1938.

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