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Ernest Hall (businessman)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sir
Ernest Hall
OBE
Born(1930-03-19)19 March 1930
Bolton, Lancashire, England
Died3 August 2024(2024-08-03) (aged 94)
Occupation(s)Businessman and musician
Known forRestoration of Dean Clough Mills
Children5

Sir Ernest Hall OBE (19 March 1930 – 3 August 2024) was an English businessman, known for his restoration of Dean Clough Mills, Halifax. He was also a pianist and composer.

Early life and education

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Hall was born in Bolton, Lancashire[1] on 19 March 1930.[2][3] He was educated at Bolton College Grammar School and the Royal Manchester College of Music.[3] This was followed by two years of National Service.[4]

Career

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Hall made his first fortune in textiles. He then sold property through the Mountleigh Group. In 1983, Hall sold his company for £40 million. He led a consortium, in which he invested £20 million, that purchased a disused carpet mill complex, Dean Clough Mills, and converted it into an arts, business, design and education complex.[5][6]

He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1986 Birthday Honours and knighted in the 1993 Birthday Honours for services to Training and Enterprise.[3][7][8]

Music

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Hall studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music between 1947 and 1951, performing Chopin's 12 Etudes Op 10 at the age of 19. His fellow students there included Martin Milner and later John Ogdon. It was Ogdon's superior virtuosity that discouraged Hall from becoming a professional musician.[4] When he was 65 he recorded the three piano concertos of Bela Bartok with the Sinfonia of Leeds,[9][10] following this with the complete piano works of Chopin (from aged 70).[11] He gave a public performance of Busoni's Piano Concerto in March 2003 with the Sheffield Symphony Orchestra.[11] Hall composed two piano sonatas.[12]

He appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs on 26 April 1998, choosing Schubert's "Piano Trio in B Major", the collected works of William Blake, and a piano as his favourite record, book and luxury item respectively,[4] and appeared on the Radio 3 programme Private Passions on 18 September 2005.[1]

Personal life

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Hall had homes in Lanzarote and in France.[13]

In 1951, Hall married firstly June Annable (died 1994), and had two sons and two daughters. He married secondly in 1975 Sarah Wellby, with whom he has a third son.[3]

In 2009, he revealed that he was in a romantic relationship with his long-time friend, the cookery writer Prue Leith.[14]

Hall died at home on 3 August 2024, at the age of 94.[15][16]

Autobiography

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His autobiography, How to Be A Failure and Succeed, was published in 2008.[17]

Bibliography

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  • —— (2008). How to Be A Failure and Succeed. Book Guild Publishing. ISBN 978-1846241635.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Private Passions - Sir Ernest Hall". BBC Online. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  2. ^ Fox, Imogen (27 July 2008). "The close-up Sir Ernest Hall, entrepreneur and musician". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. p. 1732. ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
  4. ^ a b c "Desert Island Discs - Castaway : Sir Ernest Hall". BBC Online. BBC. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  5. ^ "Age is no barrier to achievement says Sir Ernest Hall". Halifax Courier. 20 May 2008. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  6. ^ "Dean Clough". Dean Clough. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  7. ^ United Kingdom list: "No. 50551". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 June 1986. p. 10.
  8. ^ United Kingdom: "No. 53332". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 June 1993. p. 1.
  9. ^ Ernest Hall, Sinfonia of Leeds: Bartók Piano Concertos Nos 1-3. Black Box BBM1017 (1999), reviewed by Gramophone, 11/99
  10. ^ Sinfonia Leeds - About
  11. ^ a b 'Sir Ernest Hall Records Complete Works of Chopin', Arts Professional
  12. ^ Obituary, Telegraph & Argus, 6 August 2024
  13. ^ Fox, Imogen (28 July 2008). "The close-up: Sir Ernest Hall, entrepreneur and musician". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  14. ^ "How I fell for Prue at the age of 78: Dean Clough's Sir Ernest Hall opens his heart". Halifax Courier. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  15. ^ "Sir Ernest Hall, philanthropist in the Victorian mould who turned a derelict mill into 'a practical utopia' – obituary". The Telegraph. 5 August 2024. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  16. ^ "Sir Ernest Hall". The Times. 9 August 2024. Retrieved 13 August 2024.
  17. ^ Hall, Ernest (2008). How to Be A Failure and Succeed. Book Guild Publishing. ISBN 978-1846241635.
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