Next of Kin plaque: Private Clifford Hall, 3rd Field Ambulance, AIF

Bronze next of kin plaque, showing on the obverse, Britannia holding a laurel wreath, the British lion, dolphins, a spray of oak leaves and the words 'HE DIED FOR FREEDOM AND HONOUR' around the edge. Beneath the main figures, the British lion defeats the German eagle. The initials 'ECP', for the designer Edward Carter Preston appear above the lion's right forepaw. A raised rectangle above the lion's head bears the name 'CLIFFORD HALL'.

Born in Deloraine, Tasmania, Clifford Hall was employed as a labourer when he enlisted in the AIF at Hobart on 2 September 1915. He was also president of the United Labourer's Union, which had consistently condemned the war. Assigned the service number 6514, Hall was posted to as a reinforcement to the 3rd Field Ambulance. He may possibly have asked to serve with a medical unit where he would not have been a combatant. Because of his short height (156 cm) Hall was designated a nursing orderly, mainly working in advanced dressing stations (ADS), and did not work as a stretcher bearer.

Hall sailed from Melbourne for overseas service aboard HMAT Orontes on 24 November. In Egypt in March 1916 he transferred to the 13th Field Ambulance, before arriving in France 19 June. He was briefly detached to serve with 2nd Field Ambulance in July 1917.

Hall was killed by shellfire while loading an ambulance wagon at the 13th Field Ambulance Dressing Station (ADS) near Ypres on 21 October 1917, during the third battle of Ypres. Five British soldiers were also killed, a motor lorry and two motor ambulances destroyed. The ADS had been under fire for most of the day, with 12 rounds falling within 50 yards of it. As a result patients and staff were evacuated to another dressing station on the Menin Road.

Cliff Hall was buried in the Ypres Reservoir Cemetery. His father, John Richard Hall, received this commemorative plaque in October 1922. He wrote of his son: 'He was a great reader of historical works...he was a platform speaker and had he been spared would doubtless have made a great name for himself'.