By Erica Phillips

African Canadians have served Canada with honour for decades.

In 1859 William Hall, VC of Nova Scotia was the first seaman and third Canadian to win the Victoria Cross. It was the British Empire’s highest honour.

The son of freed slaves, Hall worked in shipyards and built wooden ships as a young man. In 1852 he enlisted in the Royal Navy in Liverpool, England and served two years in the Crimean War during which he received British and Turkish medals.

Later he served on the HMS Shannon under Captain William Peel. As the ship was escorting troops to China in 1857, a mutiny broke out in India against the British. Hall, who was one of a few men left standing, kept firing his gun, breaking a hole in the wall of the fort. This allowed troops to enter the fort and take it over. It was for those actions that he earned the Victoria Cross.

The medal is on display in the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax and last year, Canada Post honoured Hall with a commemorative stamp.
Hall died in 1904.

Last year a connector route in Hall’s hometown of Hantsport was renamed William Hall V.C. Memorial Highway.

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