The Shooting of little Willie Hall at Nairobi School

In 1920 William Harold Hall, an eleven-year-old boy boarding at Nairobi School, was shot dead in the school dormitory by another pupil. This sorry incident was reported to Viscount Milner, Secretary of State for the Colonies. What had happened was that in May 1920 the headmaster R.A. Low found that several boys had water pistols in their possession. He forbade their use, but not their possession. Some of the boys, who commonly used firearms on farms, then appeared to introduce such weapons into school without permission. One boy, Jack Kirwan, was in one of the boarding houses examining an automatic pistol he had brought into school. The pistol then discharged accidentally and little Willie Hall was shot through the head. He died immediately. The inquest found that Willie “died by misadventure, but the pitiable occurrence would not have taken place had there not been a lamentable lack of supervision by the authorities in charge of the school. It would seem incredible that firearms and with these I include airguns of any description should have been allowed on the school premises in the possession of these small boys. I consider that neglect has been shown by the school authorities who have failed in the trust imposed upon them.”

There was a Departmental Inquiry into what had gone wrong. The headmaster Robert Alan Low had gone on leave. Mr John Twells, acting headmaster, said that he had on one occasion seen Jack Kirwan with a heavy Service revolver. It had occurred to him that he ought to take the weapon, but he had not done so. All he did was to say that cartridges were not allowed in the school and Kirwan said he had none. Mr John G. Spalding was in charge of Kirwan’s boarding house – known as the ‘Outboarding House.’ Twells said he held him responsible for supervision of the house and he should have removed the weapon.

Spalding, a former army sergeant, was the headmaster’s clerk and the school’s physical instructor. He had been in charge of the Outboarding House for 18 months. He had never been told directly that firearms were forbidden and he thought the head should have issued special instructions to that effect. The boy Alan Tarlton, aged 17, openly carried about an airgun and Low had forbidden him to give it to younger boys. Spalding had asked Tarlton if he had any pellets for the airgun and Tarlton replied that he was not using the airgun as he had a .22 Remington, which he carried openly. Spalding thought this did not call for any action as Tarlton kept the gun in his bedroom. The night before the fatal shooting Spalding visited the dormitory and saw the revolver used by Kirwan under his pillow. He did not examine it and thought it was a water pistol. Some water pistols used in the school were very similar to revolvers.

Alan Tarlton stated that his father knew that he possessed a .450 Webley revolver and had had no objection to his having firearms, which he had had since he was 14. There was no definite rule about bringing firearms into the school. There had been several burglaries at the school and people had lost clothing. He had brought firearms to school merely as a matter of defence. He knew that they were not allowed in the school’s main site but did not think it mattered in the Outboarding House.

Another teacher, George Garton Stansfield, said a boy called Roy Brunsden had obtained a rifle from Alan Tarlton in exchange for a watch. Jack Focks had also obtained a single barrelled shotgun from Tarlton in exchange for a bicycle. Mrs Alberta Disney Gethin, the matron at the Outboarding House, said she inspected the boys’ lockers weekly. She did not look under their pillows and the boys made their own beds. The boxes containing their clothes and possessions brought at the beginning of term, were emptied and put in the boxroom. Any boy could go out on a Saturday and bring back a revolver and conceal it in his box in the boxroom. She herself had never seen a firearm in the house but she found a lack of general discipline.

Consequent upon the Inquiry, James Russell Orr, the Director of Education, said that school rules should be amended to include the prohibition of weapons of any sort, and this was done. The acting head Twells could not be exonerated from responsibility for the accident because he saw Kirwan carrying a firearm which he should have confiscated. He suggested a severe reprimand, or the loss of a year’s salary increment. He found Spalding chiefly responsible for the accident. Spalding showed indifference to duty and a failure to use common sense which led to neglect of duty. He left the house without supervision on a number of occasions. When Alan Tarlton told him he had a .22 Remington in school he took no trouble to ascertain if it was in use. He was unaware that two boys had broken bounds on the night previous to the incident and were seen by other staff returning to their dormitory at 10 p.m. “It may be asked why a man of the type of Sergeant Spalding should be entrusted with the charge of a boarding house.” They recommended his services should be dispensed with. Spalding was given one month’s notice to terminate his engagement.

Little Willie Hall, born on 17 October 1908 in Limuru, the son of William Hall, stock farmer at Limuru, and his wife Josephine Salmon, was buried in Nairobi’s Forest Road cemetery. The boy who shot Willie, John Delaval Kirwan, (who was born on 3 July 1908 in Liverpool and died on 1 November 1966 in Maseru, Lesotho) became a barrister (Gray’s Inn) and the Resident Magistrate in Uganda in 1950.

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