The Revd Nathaniel (Neil) Belton Hall: 1931-2024
Former Baptist minister and Superintendent who also served with BMS World Mission in Nepal in retirement
Neil Hall died on Saturday, 22 June in Hereford County Hospital after a short illness.
Our father had a rich and fulfilling life. He was born in 1931 (living in Bedford and Hertfordshire) and experienced the war years as a child and young person. After attending Bedford School, he did his two years National Service with the Royal Signals before going up to Oxford to read History at St. Edmund’s College.
While in Oxford, he met our mother (Rosalie Chalk, who read English at St. Anne’s College) and felt the call to Christian ministry. He stayed in Oxford to read Theology at Regent’s Park College before marrying our mother in 1957 and starting his local church ministry in Bletchley (St. Andrew’s Baptist Church), Coventry (Quinton Park Baptist) and Reading (Abbey Baptist).
In 1980 he became the Baptist Superintendent (a form of Baptist bishop) for the West Midlands, working with 200 churches and hundreds of church leaders until his retirement in 1994. He and mum responded to three separate calls to serve the church in Nepal in 1994. They retired from these roles about four years later but remained active in church and community life in Hereford (their chosen retirement location) for many years after that.
Neil is survived by four children, eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren (with a seventh on the way!). In later years he enjoyed seeing all of his family many times and extended his sporting and musical interests considerably. We will miss him a lot.
Dad died peacefully, having said to me that he believed it was his time. He loved God and people. Dad took a very active role in the Watkins Court community in Hereford where he and Mum had a flat. Since Mum’s passing in 2018, this amazing, friendly community has continued to provide fantastic support and he has been even more active within it.
Dad was passionate about justice and peace and would have been disappointed to have missed the general election in which he planned to cast his tactical vote!
The funeral will be held at Hereford Baptist Church (HR1 2BP) at 11.15 on Wednesday 10 July.
James Hall