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James
Norman Hall was born 22 April 1887, Colfax, Jasper co.,
Iowa, the second of the five children born to Arthur Wright Hall
and Ella Annette (Young) Hall. He was educated in the
common schools of Colfax after which he attended Grinnell College
where he graduated in 1910 and became a
social worker in Boston, Massachusetts while trying to establish
himself as a writer and studying for a Master's degree from
Harvard University.
There seems to be numerous versions of how James Norman Hall
became a soldier in the British Army.
Hall was on vacation in the United Kingdom
in the summer of 1914, when World War I began. Posing as a
Canadian, he enlisted in the British Army, serving in the Royal
Fusiliers as a machine gunner during the Battle of Loos. He
was discharged after his true nationality was discovered, and he
returned to the United States and wrote his first book,
Kitchener's Mob (1916), recounting his wartime experiences.
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James Norman
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But regardless of how Hall became a
soldier for Britain, at the out break of World War I, he joined the British Army. He
served in the 9th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, taking part in the
Battle of Loos. His war memoirs
Hall published in 1916 under the title *Kitchener's Mob: Adventures
of an American in the British Army in 1915* and *High
Adventure*. Hall re-enlisted in 1916 as a member of the
Lafayette
Escadrille Flying Corps (American
Volunteer Pilots in WWI), which was later
incorporated into the United States Air Service. During these
years he met
Charles Nordhoff, a pilot serving in the same corps.
In 1918 Hall was shot down behind the German lines and he
spent the last six
months of the war in a prison camp.
He was a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross
and the Croix de Guerre with
five palms and twice awarded the Medaille Militaire.
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For more on James Norman Hall visit
the links below.
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Iowa Soldier Joins Lafayette's
Escadrille, 18 Jun 1917
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U.S. Aviator Loses His Life,
28 Jun 1917
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Iowa Aviator May Recover, 29
Jun 1917
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Wartime Sidelights - American Flyers for France
3 Nov 1917
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Becomes member of United States
Air Forces, 24 Jan 1918
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J. Norman Hall, Noted Ace, To
Speak Here, 26 Nov 1919
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James Norman Hall Will Lecture
Here, 12 Dec 1919
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Iowa's Famous
Aviator to Appear at the Auditorium, 13 Dec 1919
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James Norman
Hall and Harper's Magazine, 21 Oct 1920
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Captain James
Norman Hall, Adventurer, 28 Jun 1922
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