William Edward Hall (22 August 1835 – 30 November 1894) was an English lawyer and mountaineer who published some influential works on international law.
[1] He was born at Leatherhead, Surrey, but spent his childhood abroad, his father acting as physician to the King of Hanover, and subsequently to the British legation at Naples.
He was educated privately till, at the early age of seventeen, he matriculated at University College, Oxford, where in 1856 he took his degree with a first class in the then recently instituted school of law and history, gaining, three years afterwards, the Chancellor's prize for an essay upon the effect on Spain of the discovery of the precious metals in America.
[1] He did however, exploit his legal profession in pursuit of his appetite for exploration in an expedition to South America to collect evidence on behalf of the Tichborne claimant, Arthur Orton.
He performed valuable service for several government offices, in 1871 as inspector of returns under the Elementary Education Act 1870, in 1877 by reports to the Board of Trade on oyster fisheries, in France as well as in England.