hardwick hall
family day out in dundee oct 2005
Bill’s middle name was Hardwick. His father [for reasons known only to him] gave all four of the Hall siblings [Bill, Fiona, Kitty and Bob] the same middle name. There is a much disputed family myth that we have some ancient and dodgy connection to Hardwick Hall in Derby and Bess of Hardwick. It is the consensus that grandfather Frank had a vivid imagination when it came to the family history.
All the time we were growing up, Dad chose not to tell us his middle name as it was a source of annoyance to him. This and my mothers date of birth remained the firmest family secrets. But in the end it was ironically the distinction of such an unusual middle name that enabled my sister to get him a state pension for the last few months of his life, which is around the time this image was taken at Broughty Ferry Castle in Dundee. Being the only ‘Hardwick’ handily distinguished him from the thousands of other William Halls in the HMRC database then and today allows him to be more easily found through the power of the search engine.
