Harold Hall – 1933 -2024

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I’m afraid I have more sad news for readers and forum members. Harold Hall, former editor of Model Engineers’ Workshop passed away on the 22nd of December at the age of 91.

Harold took on the role of editor after what Stan Bray had initially expected to be a few special editions of MEW took off and became a regular publication. In his day he produced a lot of content for the magazine, under his own name and that of ‘John Steele’. He designed many useful tools and accessories, the most notable of which was his tool grinding rest and its accessories, which was probably the most popular project ever appearing in MEW.

Writing for beginners was Harold’s exceptional skill as he had a very clear and logical way of explaining machining projects and techniques. Following retirement, Harold wrote many popular books on hobby engineering topics and set up the website homews.co.uk for his projects.

Harold was active in many other areas, including the Salvation Army.

Our sympathies go to his wife Sheila and daughter Wendy.

Neil Wyatt

Editor, MEW

 

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

Sorry to hear the sad news, I made several of his projects and was an admirer of his work.

Tony

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Thanks for letting us know, Neil

Harold deserves a place in the ME/MEW “Hall of Fame”

[ no pun intended ]

MichaelG.

[Michael Gilligan]

On Michael Gilligan Said:

 

Harold deserves a place in the ME/MEW “Hall of Fame”

 

I second that, it would be well deserved.

Sad indeed.  I made a number of his projects over the years and learned a lot from them.

Russell

 

[peak4Participant @peak4]

Sad to hear the news;

It’s clearly not appropriate for me to contact Harold’s family about it, but it would be good if someone is able to preserve Harold’s website, both as a memorial to him and as an ongoing future resource for this hobby; “and maybe even enable HTTPS for better security.

I appreciate that much will be available via archive.org

Bill

[peak4]

On peak4 Said:

Sad to hear the news;

It’s clearly not appropriate for me to contact Harold’s family about it, but it would be good if someone is able to preserve Harold’s website, both as a memorial to him and as an ongoing future resource for this hobby; “and maybe even enable HTTPS for better security.

I appreciate that much will be available via archive.org

Bill

I have expressed the hope that his website can continue to his family.

Neil

[larry phelan 1Participant @larryphelan1]

Sad news indeed !  I never made any of his projects, not being up to that standard, but I enjoyed reading them and did learn a lot from them.

Another one of the Greats gone !

[egaParticipant @ega]

I was reading one of his WPS books just the other day and wondering how he was faring.

I greatly respected his independent approach to machining.

As Larry says, he was one of the greats and I very much hope his online content will continue to be available (the Internet Archive appears to be under threat at present).

[Neil Wyatt]

On Neil Wyatt Said:

On peak4 Said:

Sad to hear the news;

It’s clearly not appropriate for me to contact Harold’s family about it, but it would be good if someone is able to preserve Harold’s website, both as a memorial to him and as an ongoing future resource for this hobby; “and maybe even enable HTTPS for better security.

I appreciate that much will be available via archive.org

Bill

I have expressed the hope that his website can continue to his family.

Neil

 

Sad news indeed and it would be an amazing tribute to Harold if his website and its wealth of knowledge can be preserved

RIP Harold.

 

[Graham StoppaniParticipant @grahamstoppani46499]

I would also like to add my deep respect and affection for the man (although I never had the pleasure of meeting him). As a self taught machinist, his workshop accessories had the double benefit of giving me worthwhile projects to learn from and then useful tools for my other work. The last job I did on my lathe used his carriage stop and back stop.

 

Graham

[Brian WoodParticipant @brianwood45127]

In my case he gave me some good practical and useful advice before writing my book on gearing for screw cutting.

Brian

 

[larry phelan 1Participant @larryphelan1]

Year after year Old Men disappear

Some day no-one will be there at all.

Food for thought for clubs.

[scotland63Participant @scotland63]

Hello this is Wendy, Harolds daughter and I wanted to thank those for the comments made and peoples kind words.  I have recently joined the forum and see Dad is mentioned so many times and even ongoing.  On a note about Harolds website we are unsure how to update it (even to add that he passed away) but hope that an annual standing order will keep going out meaning his website can stay there for those that would still like to use it.  At some point down the line I will have to seek advice to see if we can secure all the information.  Thank you from both Mum and I

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

You might consider this site which is set up specifically to save websites that could otherwise disappear:

https://archive.org/

a/k/a the “Wayback Machine”.

In fact, it’s already archiving the site:

https://web.archive.org/web/20250706073803/https://www.homews.co.uk/

[VicParticipant @vic]

I downloaded some plans from the website a few days ago. It would be a real shame if anything happened to it. I can appreciate the the difficulties though in maintaining something like this.

[scotland63Participant @scotland63]

We will do our best and I guess it would be good to somehow let people know what John replied above and that it appears to be archived already!

[scotland63Participant @scotland63]

Thank you John and wow good to know it is already archived.  I will contact the book publishers to see if they did this as I have been chatting to them about a few things they would have liked us to provide.

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Harold’s web site appears to be hosted on stackcp.net. He probably had an account with them. If you can’t find the details from his records or computers, you may be able to get control of his web site via their contact page with a little explanation, since you have probate.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Great to see you actively participating, Wendy !

As I am sure you must be aware, Harold was an inspiration to many on the forum.

MichaelG.

[Author]

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