Title

A.J. Halls.

Author

Butler, Roger.

Publication date

23 November 2023

Type

Biography

Language

English

Country of context

Australia

Full text

Albert James Halls (1904-1982) also known as A.J. Halls or John or Jack Halls was born in Colchester, England 18 July 1904. He travelled to Australia and served with the Royal Australian Navy from 1923-27 before returning to England. Back in Australia in 1929 he worked as a teacher in Tasmania specializing in art from 1929-1938 - the last five years as Arts Master at Hobart Technical College. Halls married Marjorie May Smale (1905-1972) in 1927. They divorced on 10 September 1940, on the grounds that since 1937 he had been guilty of misconduct with the artist Winifred Betty Armstrong (1912-2000). They married in 1943.

In 1940 Halls became Manager of ABC radio 7NT Launceston, beginning his career in educational broadcasting. In 1941-43 he was School Broadcast Officer in Western Australia and took up a similar position in Sydney in 1943. By 1945 he was the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s Supervisor of Youth Education. He also wrote art criticism, lectured on children’s creativity, and exhibited his own paintings. In 1947 he was living in Papua New Guinea with his wife Betty and their two children Marcus (born 1940) and Julian (born 1944) after being appointed Art Officer attached to the Department of Education in Papua and New Guinea. He returned briefly to Queensland, exhibiting with the Miya group, before returning to Papua New Guinea 1949 as Publication Officer on the staff of the Director of Education.

 While in Papua New Guinea Halls met Geraldine Jay (1919-1996), a young novelist, who was working as a stenographer with the Supreme Court (from June 1949- February 1950). She would accompany him on his subsequent postings, incorporating aspects of their exotic placements into her writings.

In 1950 Halls joined the Paris based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and in 1951-53 was Head of Mission for the UNESCO Project for the Development of Radio Education in Pakistan. This was followed by similar positions in Thailand (from 16 January 1954), Lebanon, and India (29 February 1958 - 29 February 1960). Time was also spent in France.

Halls retired in 1960 and married Geraldine in 1962. They setup home in The Old Grammar School House, Church Lane a heritage listed 1620 residence in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England. From there they sold Japanese prints, Chinese porcelain, and oriental art to private buyers.

In 1971 they returned to live permanently in Adelaide, purchasing a property at 21 Commercial Road, in the prestigious inner suburb of Hyde Park, in Adelaide. They retained their English property and indicated that they would return occasionally. In the meantime, they organised a series of selling exhibitions of their collection of Japanese prints - Adelaide April 1971, Sydney, April 1971, Macquarie Galleries, Canberra May 1971. These prints had been collected over their years of travel but they had never been to Japan. Halls was studying the Japanese language in preparation to their first trip to Japan in 1971. Exhibitions continued into the 1980s.

A.J.Halls died in Adelaide in 1982.

Roger Butler 23 November 2023