Material Type

Recording

Date Range

15 March 1985

Physical Description

Dynarec audio cassette tape

Physical Condition

Excellent

History Biographical

Elizabeth (Liz) Carol Hall was born on 10 October 1924, in Alderly Edge, Cheshire, England. Elizabeth had a brother David and two sisters, Daphne and Diana, all in England. She attended a private day school and later a boarding school. In 1940 she was evacuated from England to Canada as part of a program to take British children out of the range of German bombing during World War 2. Elizabeth remained in Canada, first in Coaticook, Quebec and later in Winnipeg, Manitoba until 1942, when she returned to England. Joining the army, Elizabeth served as an ambulance driver, then a driving instructor and finally an automotive mechanic. At the end of World War 2 Elizabeth married Dr. Robert (Bob) Hall. A lack of employment for physicians in England brought the Halls and their three children - Michael, Alison (Mrs. Earle) and Jackie (Mrs. Buckland) - to Canada in 1958, where Dr. Hall joined the Campbell Clinic in Lethbridge. In 1962 Elizabeth Hall joined the choir of St. Augustine's Anglican Church, and also served on the Vestry for four years. She was also involved in the Home and School Association.In 1963, she became active in the Girl Guide movement, rising to the position of Provincial Training Commissioner by 1985. In 1968 Mrs. Hall bagan to advocate for the creation of a park in the river valley at Lethbridge, and from there began to develop outdoor education programs for school children in cooperation with Helen Schuler. From 1969 to 1972 Mrs. Hall, with eight other women, founded and maintained the Meals on Wheels program in Lethbridge. She also served on the newly created Community Services Adivsory Committee, where she continued to advocate for parks and other recreation facilities in the city. In 1977 Elizabeth Hall was elected to Lethbridge City Council. Re-elected in 1980 and 1983, Mrs. Hall stepped down from City Council due to ill health prior to the 1986 election. While an Alderman, Mrs. Hall was in the forefront of the Urban Parks Project and the CentreSite Project. In 1976 the Young Women's Christian Association chose Elizabeth Hall as one of their Women of the Year. In 1977 she and Helen Schuler were given the Alberta Teachers Association Award of Merit for their work in environmental education. In 1987 the City named the Elizabeth Hall Wetlands, part of the Urban Parks Project, in her honour. Eliabeth Hall died of cancer on 14 October 1987.

Acquisition Source

Hall, Mrs. Elizabeth

Scope and Content

Interview with Mrs. Elizabeth Hall. Interviewer: Joyce Wilkinson. Liz was born in England and educated in a private day school and then went to boarding school. in 1939 world war 11 had started and many children were being sent out of England for safety. j.n 1940, uiz, under private sponsorship was one of twelve girls to leave her school for evacuation to Canada. The journey was on board a very unstable ship which rolled with every wave and to add to the adventure a ship in the vicinity which had been carrying merman and Italian f.u.ws had been torpedoed so the convoy was put into a smoke screen, by the escort. Upon arrival in Montreal the young people were taken to a house on the banks of the at. Lawrence which belonged to Lady Athelstan, she had given permission for the house to be used until the students could go to the various houses where they would be living. After a week, Liz went with her friends to a school in Coaticook, S. Quebec. This school had been empty for some time and was very dirty with broken windows. in the grounds were two ponies and numerous skunks, the latter made their presence felt and at night the girls used to soak their pillows with cologne to get rid of the skunk smell. For the next two and one half years Liz went to school in Winnipeg which was called Riverbend1 but is now known as Balmoral house. Her holidays were spent in New Brunswick with two elderly cousins, natriculation examination papers were sent out from England and at age 16 Liz had completed her high school education and wanted to go on to university, but her cousins did not think this was suitable, i-his was now 1942 and many young people were going back to the UK and Liz was able to get a berth on a small ship. This ship had been built prior to 1914 and had been used on the Baltic so was not really capable of withstanding Atlantic storms. Liz boarded in Halifax and after three days they arrived in St. John's and there they stayed for three weeks. Convoys coming from New York were being blown apart due to "U" Boat activity, one corvette looked as though she had been cut in half by a knife. At last part of a convoy got through and the journey was started with an escort of four destroyers and 5 covettes. The Atlantic was so rough the "U" Boats were unable to raise their periscopes above the waves. During the last forty eight hours the only food available on the ship were beans and rice. Six weeks had elapsed since leaving Halifax so everyone was glad to leave the ship which had been infested with bedbugs and cockroaches, some of which had invaded Liz's trunk and eaten some nylon stockings she was bringing back for her sisters. In later years Liz found that one of her neighbours in Lethbridge had served as an officer aboard one of the escorting corvettes. Upon arrival in the UK Liz still had thoughts of going to university, but she changed her mind when she saw how people were going 'all out' for the war effort. She joined the army and became an ambulance driver, then a driving instructor, the latter she found rather nerve racking so she became a mechanic which she has found very useful on occasion. At the end of the war Liz was married to Dr. Bob Hall who had been serving in Burma. At this time the British Government was encouraging general practitioners to specialize, but unfortunately had not taken into account the specialists who were now leaving the armed forces to take up their private practises. The result was a surplus of young specialists, but no jobs. Many of the doctors were attracted to Western Canada and Dr. Hall was one of those who came in 1958 and joined the Campbell Clinic, with three children the Hall family settled in Lethbridge and like so many young families after the war had to start to establish a new home. In 1962 Liz was invited to join the church choir at St. Augustine's and served on the church Vestry for four years. The Home and School Association was another of her interests. In 1963 she started taking a leading part in the Girl Guide movement and today is Provincial Training Commissioner for Alberta. In 1968 Liz wrote a letter to the local newspaper and to City Council begging them to set aside the River Valley as a park, through this she became a member of the Parks and Recreation Committee and in 1969 a student from U of A, Mel Andrews, did a study of the valley and made recommendations as to the future of the Kivey valley and many of thesem have been incoporated into the Urban Parks plan.At this time a new City Manager developed the Community services Advisory Committee and Liz was invited to become a member, wlso in 1969 together with eight other women she was instrumental in organising meals on wheels in the City of Lethbridge and this came to fruition in 1970. In 1972 A woman teaching Environmental education at LCC wanted her students to become involved,as part of their curriculum, with the school children, Helen Schuler and Liz from the Lethbridge Naturalist society were asked to help with this scheme and permission was given for the students from George McKillop school to become part of the interpretive programme, only two of the students from LCC kept up their interest, but Helen and Liz carried on. The children were given classroom orientation and then taken to the outdoors to observe nature. The scheme was very successful and the reaction from the teachers was very positive and the two ladies were asked to continue and expand the programme, but they needed more volunteers as the project was becoming too big and time consuming for only two people, so a training programme was developed. Mary Sailey is in charge of the programme and has at least 16 volunteers to call on. In 1973 Liz was once more a member of the Community Advisory Committee and served for four more years two of which she was chairman, une of her proudest achievements was the Ten Year Plan for major recreation facilities for the city. The Senior Citizens' Centre was one of the developments through this programme. Up until three months before the civic election in 1977, Liz had given no thought to running for council, at this time. Vera rerguson was the token woman alderman. Liz decided to 'run' and was elected. Vera was a great help during the first term as she was able to inform Liz on many points of council business. In 1980, she was the only woman on council and at the election tried to interest many women 'to run' but was not successful. In 1977, she and Helen Schuler were given the Alberta Teachers Association Award of Merit for their work with the school children in the Environmental Programme. As neither of them were teachers this was a distinct honour. Liz is still a member of the Lethbridge Naturalist Society and for many years has been President of the Church Choir.

Access Restrictions

Public Access

Accession No.

19921043000

Collection

Archive

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