Maurice Hall

Maurice Hall, died aged 59 on 27th September September 1990, devoted much of his life to the study and celebration of Greyfriars School, and was the author of ‘I Say, You Fellows!’ – a definitive biography of the school’s creator, the enigmatic and prolific Charles St. John Hamilton (alias Frank Richards et al).

Published in the weekly boys’ papers the Gem and the Magnet from 1908 to 1940, the Greyfriars tales featured the Famous Five: the resolute but moody Harry Wharton, the gentle and reflective Frank Nugent, the hearty Bob Cherry, the blunt Johnny Bull from Yorkshire, and the verbose Indian Hurree Jamset Ram Singh.

Outside this charmed circle, but still the true hero of the stories, was Hamilton’s most glorious creation – and literature’s most celebrated fat boy – the lying cowardly, gluttonous, unwashed, greedy and cadging William George Bunter, perpetually expecting a postal order and a thrashing from the pedant Quelch.

Hall was also chairman and treasurer of the Friars’ Club, a group of 70-odd men – one of whom bought the first issue of the Magnet in 1908 – who meet regularly to mull over their favourite stories, to chart the 32 year progress of the Boys and masters of the Remove and to consider such arcana of Greyfriars lore as the precise location of the Cloisters and the address of Mr. Joyce the woodcutter.

The Friars endorse the wholesome code of the Old School – smoking tends to be frowned upon at their meetings, for example (bad for a chap’s wind, a habit for cads and bad hats). They are none the less a scholarly group, devoted to literary and bibliographical discussion, and not at all the sort of people to dress up as schoolboys and take it in turns to cane one another – indeed, when a Sunday newspaper asked Hall to arrange this it received a very dusty answer.

Maurice Hall was born at Merton Park, Surrey, on Sept 29 1930, and from the age of 14 held a variety of jobs in accountancy.

Young Maurice was eight when he first read his elder brother Dennis’s copies of the Magnet and Gem, and soon became a passionate fan.

He helped found the Old Boys’ Book Club (London Branch); and his collection of magazines and compilations of Hamilton’s stories grew into one of the most extensive of its kind – all carefully annotated and stored on the shelves of what he unashamedly referred to as his ‘den’

When the Friars’ Club was founded in 1982, Hall was unanimously elected chairman. The Society publishes a quarterly bulletin, the Friars’ Chronicles – with quizzes, gossip and the rest.

Hall often used to visit Hamilton at his house near Broadstairs, where he also met Edith Hood, Hamilton’s housekeeper for 40 years. His profound knowledge of the subject eventually bore fruit in ‘I Say, You Fellows!’ The manuscript was rejected by a succession of publishers so he published it privately; the book was favourably reviewed, but Hall’s triumph was marred by litigation over copyright.

‘To some – such as George Orwell, whose influential article on school stories was published in Horizon 50 years ago – this prolonged interest in childhood literature suggests not only a case of arrested development but espousal of Edwardian snobbery. But the Friars’ preoccupations harmed no one and given much pleasure. Hall remained a dedicated Friar to the end, and left a legacy of unpublished research into the works of the extraordinary Hamilton.

Jim Godbolt

A version of this Obituary appeared in the Daily Telegraph.