His mother said ‘buy property’ but he bought Chinese robes too. Now his Hong Kong flat could be a textile museum

When Chris Hall’s mother said ‘buy property’, he obeyed but bought Chinese robes too, and amassed a world-class collection. He recalls a globetrotting childhood

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Chris Hall at his home on The Peak in Hong Kong. The collector of world-class textiles talks about a childhood spent continent-hopping and why he no longer cares what anyone thinks about him. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 7:45am, 20 Aug 2023Updated: 11:07am, 29 Nov 2023

My father came from fairly humble origins – his father was a train driver – and he won a scholarship to a local grammar school in Yorkshire (in northern England), left at 15 and qualified as an accountant.

As a young man, he realised there were more opportunities in the British Empire, so he joined the Sudan government service in 1935. My mother was an Essex girl whose first husband was a qualified engineer.

During the second world war, he was in Sudan but she was in Britain being a secretary, which she found very boring. When the Sudan government offered passage to five wives of colonial officials, provided they’d go out there and become secretaries on the railways, it sounded like a splendid opportunity. There she met my father who courted her for seven years.

Eventually she went back to England, got a divorce and they were married. Of course, it was a big scandal. The English are very conservative as a people, and the English overseas are even more conservative. My father was worried about losing his job.

Collector Chris Hall at his home on The Peak, in Hong Kong. Photo: Jonathan Wong

The centre of social life was the club in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, and the important occasion, I gather, was my mother’s first appearance as Mrs Hall, not Mrs Godfrey. It was the summer and the senior people and, more importantly their wives, were on holiday, so weren’t there to strongly disapprove.

My father kept his job; and two years later, in 1952, I appeared on the scene.