See if you can spot Dad, Tony Hall. The Hall family grew up quite close to one another geographically and pretty well emotionally. For most of my childhood Granny and Grandpa Hall lived in Pine Street in Pretoria and Aunty Connie, Uncle Jack, Rosemary, Barbara and Ian lived across the road. Your Dad's dad, of course, owned the Lido Hotel south of Johannesburg. David and Tony were boarders at Pretoria Boys High School – older than my brother Peter who was also a boarder, while I was mostly a “day dog”. As you may have been told, Grandpa (that is my Grandpa and your Great Grandpa) was a geologist who, as the assistant director of the Geological Survey, surveyed some of South Africa’s richest mineral prospects – platinum, phosphate and gold in particular. With nothing more than a rock hammer, a chisel and a wonderful instinct he made extraordinary discoveries and his reports are still used by geologists today. Ask any geologist who works in South Africa about Dr A L Hal
Left wing commentary from the heart and the head