Arnold Theodore Hall
Theo Hall was born in England and came to Canada where he joined the Bank of Montreal at the age of 17.1) Hall served in the First World War.2) Hugh Bostock first met Hall when he was employed with the Bank of Montreal in Penticton in 1921.3) Hall was the manager of the Bank of Montreal in Mayo from May 1934 until it closed in May 1942.4)
Hugh Bostock met Hall again in 1939 and described him as an outstanding citizen and a bachelor who supported his invalid sister. He was a member of the Plymouth Brethren Church, a nonconformist, evangelical Christian movement that started in Dublin in the late 1820s. Bostock said Hall stood up for the underprivileged and gave as an example the fact that White Pass would not give wood cutting contracts to the First Nations. Hall took the contracts and sublet them to First Nations wood cutters, with no added cost.5) Prospectors and miners also benefited from Hall’s inclination to trust as he sometimes authorized substantial loans to men that he judged of good character but with no security or financial assets. As a result, successful operations employed many people during the Depression years. Hall donated the lots in Mayo next to the North Star Motel for a children’s playground.6)
Theo Hall took over the Bank of Montreal in Dawson from W.A. Hutchings in 1942. Hall grew sick in 1943 and was succeeded at the bank in February 1943 by D. E. Gilliland.7)