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Pat Hall

British ornithologist (1917 – 2010)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ11854177
Source-derived summary

Beryl Patricia Hall, née Woodhouse (13 June 1917 – 26 August 2010) was a British ornithologist, associated with the Natural History Museum. She is best known for her work on African birds. She also wrote a book of whimsical poems with Derek Goodwin called the Bird Room Ballads (1969).

Life

Pat grew up in Epsom, Surrey, born in an upper-middle-class family. Her ambition was to study mathematics at Cambridge but she failed to pursue it due to opposition from her parents. Forced to spend several years at home, she took to watching birds and then decided to sign up for the Women's Legion in 1939. Her work involved teaching ambulance driving and precautions during Air Raids. She got engaged to John Hall, a lieutenant in the army who was posted in the Middle East. She was initially posted to South Africa and she transferred to Egypt in March 1941 allowing her to marry John.

After the war she returned to the UK and in 1947, following a failed marriage, she took up a position as a scientific associate at the bird room of the Natural History Museum.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Pat Hall” is british ornithologist (1917 – 2010). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Hall, British and ornithologist, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1917, 2010, 1969, 1939—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1917. For this dossier, Hall, British and ornithologist is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british ornithologist (1917 – 2010)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11854177. VIAF identifies the subject as 52942932. The Library of Congress control number is n78036099. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1917, 2010, 1969 and 1939.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Pat Hall”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Pat Hall primary sources, Pat Hall archive and Hall research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Pat Hall” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.