Roland Hall
Philosopher who contributed many colourful and erudite entries to the Oxford English Dictionary
ROLAND HALL, who has died aged 87, was a philosopher and lexicographer responsible for contributing many thousands of words to the Oxford English Dictionary. He was also thought to be the only British person surviving who had been directly involved in the war crimes trial of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, sometimes described as “Hitler’s greatest general”.
Hall published in a wide range of philosophical areas, but was renowned for his bibliographical work on John Locke and David Hume. He also loved teaching, and carried on into his eighties.
Before going up to Oxford, he was called up for National Service, posted to the Royal Army Service Corps. After basic training, which included touch-typing, he was found a position where, as his superiors put it, “his brain wouldn’t atrophy”. This was as clerk to General Frank Simpson, president of the court at the British war crimes unit in Hamburg, during the four-month trial of von Manstein in 1949. Hall had to collate and safeguard all the written evidence for the court and kept track of court proceedings. He was only 19 at the time, and the experience had a profound impact on him, convincing him of the justification for war in the face of great evil.
At the end of the trial Simpson was instrumental in helping Hall to join the British Forces Network in Hamburg, where he was responsible for producing classical music programmes at the Musikhalle for the forces in Western Europe.
During this period Hall learnt German from his vocabulary notebooks in the Army, which led to his later interest in teaching courses on Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. His Army service may not have seemed very military, but his pay book records that he was a “first-class shot”, hitting the bull’s-eye with his rifle at 300 yards.
Roland Hall was born at Hounslow on July 11 1930, the eldest son of Barbara and Alfred Hall. He attended Hounslow College prep school, where he “fell in love” with the geometry mistress because she introduced him to wonderful new words. At the age of eight, however, with war looming, he was evacuated with his younger sister Dinah to a convent school in the home counties, where the homesickness and loneliness he experienced had a lasting effect.
In 1942 he gained a place at Christ’s Hospital near Horsham, and became acquainted with classical music, which remained a passion until he died. He learnt to make a one-valve radio, and woodwork became his favourite subject. After becoming top of the French class, Hall opted to specialise in Latin and Greek and won a scholarship to Oxford in 1948.
After completing his military service he went up to Keble College in 1950. He took a First in Greats, followed in 1956 by a Bphil supervised by JL Austin and Gilbert Ryle.
Subsequently he held posts in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews (mostly at Queen’s College, Dundee) before moving in 1967 to the University of York, where he was Reader in Philosophy until his retirement in 1994.
He continued to be active in teaching and research, however, and when invited by local doctors to contribute short courses at the Hull York Medical School, founded in 2003, to round out the medical students’ scientific education he taught Ancient Medicine, the Psychology of Happiness (to chime with a government “well-being” campaign) and Ancient Greek as used in medical terms.
From an early age Hall had become interested in the Oxford English Dictionary and particularly in its philosophical words. In 1957 he responded to a public appeal for volunteer readers for the Supplement to the OED edited by Robert Burchfield, and from 1963 he assisted the great lexicographer with drafting entries and defining terms. As Burchfield’s Telegraph obituary recorded in 2004, his team “contained a fair number of oddballs and eccentrics. One outside contributor worked from Broadmoor and another from Parkhurst, where he had fetched up after being arrested in the Bodleian Library”.
Over the succeeding decades Hall systematically read the entire works of John Stuart Mill, John Locke, William James and many other philosophical sources to research new words and meanings for the OED. Delighted with his work, Burchfield soon started sending Hall material for use in drafting general entries.
For example, Hall told the scholar of the OED Charlotte Brewer that under “B” his contributions included badger game (an extortion scheme in which a man is lured into a compromising situation and is then surprised and blackmailed by the accomplice), byssinosis (a lung disease caused by the inhalation of textile fibres), and Bronx cheer (a sound of contempt or derision made by blowing through closed lips, usually with the tongue between).
In 1970 he founded The Locke Newsletter, since 2001 renamed Locke Studies: An Annual Journal of Locke Research, editing it for 42 years. He also contributed scores of papers on his lexicographical findings to the journal Notes & Queries.
Hall might admit to being religious, and read the Bible through from the age of seven to 17, but his beliefs were not confined to one school of thought. It is doubtful whether he believed in Heaven; but if he were to find himself there, he would expect to be sitting in his rocking chair, reading Homer, listening to Beethoven, with a glass of Islay single malt and a plentiful supply of vanilla ice cream.
He was a devoted father to his daughters and this aspect of his personality was also detectable in his approach to teaching. He was committed to fostering talent, especially in those who might be overlooked and the less advantaged.
Hall is survived by his second wife, Roma, and by three daughters from his first marriage to Daphne.