When I first came to Derby and had the good fortune to be put in touch with Pat and Gordon Halls I had done only a modest amount of bellringing and many of the peals I had attempted tended to fail. Someone said, with what turned out to be complete truth, "All that will change if you ring with Gordon Halls. Gordon doesn't believe in failure". That saying just came back to me when I thought what to say about this remarkable person to the vast crowd of people who have gathered to honour his memory, -"He did not believe in failure". That could be almost a text.
What did he do to secure the opposite of failure? Success does not come by accident, but only by determination, an iron will, careful planning, meticulous organization, the power of leadership, a strong personality, great energy, and sheer hard work, all backed by a first rate intellect. These were the abilities and the attitudes that Gordon brought to everything that he did, and that is why failure was not on his agenda.
Many of us here today are bellringers, but Gordon had other interests not excluding his work, though I must say having seen a list of all his activities I do wonder how he found time to go to it. He obtained a first -class honours degree in mechanical engineering and also a prize at university. Perhaps not many people knew that; it was something of which he would not speak. So he was well qualified to work for Rolls Royce for 39 years. Several of his colleagues worked for the same company, notably the late Denis Carlisle with whom he composed peals and later rang handbells in the lunch-hour.
His other interests included travelling and learning foreign languages. He could speak both French and Italian. He was interested in sport, cricket and football; I believe his Saturday peals were arranged on days when Derby County were playing away, and he was a keen gardener. The garden at Mickleover was always immaculate, and I think productive. In fact I remember him ringing less in the summer so that he could attend to his garden.
But his interest in bells was paramount, whether the technical process of installing and maintaining them or the practice of ringing changes on them, and his name will long be remembered in bell history, not only in Derbyshire but nationally if not internationally. The interest grew in Newton le Willows where he spent much of his early life and first rang on VE Day in 1945, 57 years ago today, ringing an anniversary peal there in 1995. He had the ambition to make Newton le Willows bells a 10 and I understand they were dedicated on the day after his death, his old friend Ken Edwards being the local organizer.
In Derbyshire, as the bell consultant to the Diocesan Advisory Committee for 38 years, an appointment, which he said was unofficial, he oversaw restoration or major work on at least 40 rings of bells in the county, often in a hands-on way. He would appear in overalls with large spanners and really got his hands dirty; Wormhill comes to mind, which he tackled despite the illness that had by then attacked him. In this, his own place of worship, he was ringing master for 25 years, having rescued the tower from possible silence, as well as ringing at the cathedral. Many who are here today were taught the early stages of ringing by him; many others were encouraged into ringing quarter peals and whole peals, some into travelling all over the country ringing 10-bell peals.
Gordon himself rang over 2000 peals, ringing the 2000th on 1st January 2000, during the short span of remission between his first serious illness and his latter fatal one. His last peal, on 19th January this year, was Pat's own 2000th that had already failed once owing to a broken clapper. Gordon rang in both attempts although he was clearly very ill, with his usual great courage and resolve, and there is no doubt that that occasion brought him deep satisfaction, as it did to all of us who so admire and respect Pat, his wife of 43 years who has fully shared his commitment to the ringing in this county and elsewhere.
Journeys to 10-bell towers will always remain in the memories of those of us who joined him for so many of them. He would think nothing of leaving home at 5 a.m., ringing peals morning and afternoon in some far-off location and returning by midnight, not apparently very tired. In the U.K. peals took place as far apart as Guernsey and Inverness, but some were further away than that, for instance in Australia. Here, in a church in Sydney on the 4th of August 1988, a peal was interrupted by loud banging on the ringing room door and by shouted commands that we should stop, to which Gordon shouted back "We're ringing it for the Queen Mother's birthday". I would not repeat in church the comment that came back, but I don't think the speaker was a Royalist. Gordon, who did not believe in failure, made us all carry on to the end. When we let the complainant in he turned out to be the Vicar, who had forgotten that he had given permission.
Gordon made great contributions to the administrative side and the social side of ringing. He was active in the Derby District committee, chairman for some years, on the wider Association committee and on the Central Council where he represented us continually for 42 years and never missed a meeting, and I understand that he always spoke; after all he always had something worth saying and could say it well. His letters to the Ringing World were also frequent and authoritative. He pioneered the annual dinners and often M.C.'d them, being a witty raconteur, and a great entertainer. Some who are here will know what is meant by the Capita Magnissimus; this was apparently his invention.
Mention must be made of the peal weeks that Gordon started in 1971 and continued to run for 25 years; beginning in a modest way these spiralled until in one year 22 attempts were made for peals in 5 counties, within 5 days involving 38 ringers. Gordon conducted many of these himself; I learnt only recently that his first peal as a conductor had been on handbells. He had a full command of the compositions that he called. It might be an exaggeration to say that he never made a mistake but when he did it was quickly rectified, while he rectified the errors of others almost before they knew they were going to make them. I speak as one who once received a punch from the conductor as well as a verbal correction; after that I made sure not to ring the bell next to him.
The people of Cumbria have much for which to thank Gordon as he contrived to have most of the bells of the demolished church of St Alkmund, Derby, installed in Whitehaven, now augmented to 12. But Gordon did not just leave it at that; as well as arranging an exchange of bell metal he also organized exchanges of people over many years, the Derby-Whitehaven reunions taking place in alternate places every other year so that a there is a true link between the ringers of those two associations not exactly on one another's doorsteps.
Gordon has enjoyed a happy family life and has seen Martin, Diane and Catherine all happily married as well as able to ring. He rang peals with all of them, and though it is understood they have gone off peals, and who is to say that they are not wise in that respect, they still ring on occasion. Gordon was able to see his two grandchildren, Hayley and Gregory, even though Hayley lives in Australia. He was awarded a well-deserved MBE in 2000 and was able to visit Buckingham Palace to receive it.
He was most hospitable and generous, and thoughtful for other people. He would never allow anyone to feel ignored or unwanted, but would always bring them into a conversation on the social level, - or into a peal perhaps on the ringing side.
I know you will understand what I mean when I say that Gordon was entirely lacking in anything that might be called sentimentality. He was absolutely matter-of-fact and down-to-earth, perhaps as befits an engineer. The nearest I came to an emotional conversation with him was on his birthday a month ago when he 'phoned me up. He said "I want you to give an address at my funeral", - in exactly the same intonation as "I want you to ring a peal at so-and-so". "I don't know when it will be but it won't be long", without a hint of self-pity in his voice. I just managed to say, " I owe you a very great deal", and he replied in that typical blunt way "I know you do, now can I put you down for it?" We all owe him a very great deal; that is why we are here in such numbers.
Gordon did not wear his heart on his sleeve, but there is no question
that that heart was in the right place, a cliché but a true one.
He held very definite and traditional values. He was a worshipper in this
church, had been its treasurer and always a valued worker for it. In fact
we can say without any shadow of a doubt that he was a Christian and a
genuine one. Pat believes that his faith enabled him to endure his long
illness without complaint and to face death unafraid, and I am sure she
is right. We shall never forget this spirited servant of the Church, who
has so ably and lastingly shown his faith by good works.
Text of tribute written by Alec Humphrey and published by The
Ringing World
My first memories of Gordon are from the early sixties, when as a callow youth I learnt to ring, and Gordon would appear at meetings and other Association events that I attended with my mentor, David Marshall. Even with my lack of experience at the time, it was apparent to me that this was a man of high abilities who was not above putting himself out for others. He rang in four of my first six peals and began inviting me to take part in some of the Thursday band peals that were frequently rung at Duffield.
Gordon Halls was born in Denton, Manchester in 1931. In 1935 his father, Harold moved his wife, Rose, and their family to Derby when he obtained employment at Rolls Royce, but by 1938 he took a job with the Vulcan Foundry in Newton le Willows and the family moved again. Gordon learned to ring in Newton le Willows, during the war. It appears that he was given the choice of joining a church organisation, the options open to him were the choir or the bellringers and he chose to join the ringers, saying he would try ringing for three weeks.
Gordon attended Newton le Willows Grammar School obtaining an impressive array of Higher School Certificate subjects, and went from there to UMIST, travelling from home each day and graduating in 1952 with a first in Mechanical Engineering, winning the Isabella Storey Prize en route. At this point he became a trailblazer. Before the term gap year, and the act of taking a year out, had become prevalent, and at a time when foreign travel was for the rich and famous, he went camping and hitchhiking round Europe with a college friend. He subsequently took up employment as a graduate apprentice at Rolls Royce Ltd, Derby and remained with them throughout his working life, working in the combustion department, in blade cooling, and doing research in transmission and bearings. He also worked, concurrently with Rolls Royce as an Industrial Fellow at Nottingham University.
When he moved to Derby Gordon began ringing at the Cathedral, at that time under Harold Taylor, and was a loyal Sunday Service ringer there. Gordon was always keen to encourage the development of ringing skills, and one of the main ways that he perceived that that could be accomplished was by organizing and ringing in peals. He also taught many people essential ringing skills, not only in his own tower but travelling many miles to attend practices and special training sessions elsewhere.
Gordon married Pat (nee Forster) in 1959; when both were ringers at the Cathedral, Pat having learnt to ring in Sussex. They have three children, Martin, Diane, and Catherine, who all became proficient ringers. Gordon took great pride in his family and in their achievements, and their respective families have likewise been a source of pleasure to him and Pat. Similarly when Gordon was awarded the M.B.E. (for services to campanology in Derbyshire) in the Queen's birthday Honours List in 2000 he was deeply touched by it and thoroughly enjoyed his day at Buckingham Palace in October 2000, despite the unaccustomed morning dress. He never did find out who put his name forward for the award!
In 1953 the local evening paper published a photograph of the tenor of St Werburgh, Derby being broken up in the tower, in fact seven of the eight bells were treated so. In the 1960's St Andrew, Derby was demolished and its ten bells sold for scrap by the incumbent. When St Alkmund, Derby was earmarked for demolition, Gordon was determined that the same fate should not befall the eight bells at that church and largely through his efforts all eight are now in regular use, one in the augmented eight at Breadsall and the other seven as the nucleus of what has become the twelve at Whitehaven. In 1961 Gordon initiated the DDA bell repair fund in its present form because he felt that it was so necessary to do something positive to having bells restored. Through actions such as these he became heavily involved in preserving and restoring bells in the Diocese. He was the bells advisor to the Diocesan Advisory Committee for well over thirty years, in which capacity he did much valuable, and often unsung work, and was the DDA's Bell Consultant from 1961 until 2002. As such he inspected very nearly every installation in the Diocese at least once, and many of them more.
In the 1970's ringing at Derby St Peter's, which immediately after the war had probably had the pre-eminent band in the area, ceased. And because he knew that bells that are not rung are soon likely to become unringable Gordon asked if he could arrange a practice there each week. Permission was given for this and Cathedral learners were taught to handle a bell at St Peter's. Before too long there were enough ringers to ring at St Peter's on Sunday as well as the Cathedral. Subsequently many of those started to attend St Peter's church, and the Cathedral and St Peter's bands became separate. Gordon continued to be Ringing Master at St Peter's for 25 years, worshipped there with Pat regularly, served on the P.C.C., as Treasurer and as chairman of the property committee at the time when the new kitchen was being installed.
Despite this level of commitment Gordon determined to ring peals at all of the available ten-bell towers, and in fact rang peals at 225 tens - he was not able in the end to keep up with the rate of augmentation and new castings. Gordon rang 12 handbell peals, up to Plain Bob Royal. But of course he much preferred ringing tower-bells, ringing a grand total of 2117 peals, 1688 of them for the DDA, conducting 781 of them himself, and 1191 peals with Pat.
Gordon rang his 2000th peal on 1st January 2000. It was also the Cathedral's peal to celebrate 2000 years of Christianity, but he seemed to be more proud of taking part in Pat's 2000th peal, which sadly was also his last, on 19th January this year. By this time he was clearly quite ill but his final illness had still not been diagnosed. Gordon had endured a gruelling but, at the time, life-saving operation in September 1998 in which an entire rib, a section of his oesophagus and part of his stomach were removed. Pat tells me that the incidence of cancer of the oesophagus is increasing and as with many cancers, early treatment is essential if there is to be a cure. After this operation Gordon made a slow but heartening recovery.
Later Gordon and Pat took to going on cruise holidays, as there was always a bed available if Gordon felt ill. On the last night of a cruise on an Italian ship, there was to be an election for Mr Pizza. All the men present were asked to do various tasks and gradually all but four were eliminated. Gordon was one of the four left. These four were given amusing tasks to perform and the audience, suitably primed with alcohol, thoroughly enjoyed seeing the antics. Then each of the four men were led away - though one returned very quickly, refusing to take part in the final 'game'.
The first contestant returned; he was dressed in a flimsy long skirt and a makeshift bra and he had to perform a belly dance to suitable music. He was very funny. The second contestant followed, but he was dressed in a long skirt with flounces and had to dance the can-can; again everyone laughed. Finally Gordon emerged, looking resplendent in a delicate white tutu - he had to perform the 'dying swan'. He did it superbly, pirouetting on tiptoe and doing graceful leaps across the floor: the audience fell about in hysterics and when the spectators were asked to show by their applause who had won, there was no doubt - and Gordon duly received his sash proclaiming that he was Mr Pizza.
Gordon's eventual diagnosis with secondary cancer in March this year came as a blow since he had earlier been told that a scan to identify the cause of his back pain revealed no cancer. However he reacted with typical stoicism and determined to make the best of things, enjoying some good days with Pat and his family before the end of April. Diane's visit, from Australia, expecting her second child was particularly poignant, but equally a source of comfort for all concerned, and quite typically, at all times Gordon's greatest concern was for other people and their feelings.
Gordon was elected to the Central Council in 1960 and served as representative of the DDA until his death, a period spanning 42 years. During that time he never missed a meeting and always found something about which to speak: a contribution which was invariably pertinent and which frequently made points of which neither the officers nor the other members had thought. This capacity for original thought, cutting to essential points, remained one of Gordon's principal characteristics; he would often make crucial comments at meetings, was a persuasive and fluent speaker, and displayed presence of mind in all circumstances.
Gordon has certainly been an outstanding ringer and member of the DDA,
but also an outstanding Christian and family man. May he rest in peace.