Herman Henry Yeatman Woolf

Herman Henry Yeatman "Hal" Woolf (23 June 1902-23 November 1962) was a British artist who died in police custody under disputed circumstances. His second ex-wife, Greta, campaigned for an official inquiry. The Government held an enquiry chaired by Norman Skelhorn QC, which was held in private. The final report was published in March 1964 and the evidence released to the UK National Archives in 1995. This inquiry led to changes in police procedure notably with regard to charging semi-conscious or unconscious suspects.

This case was also the start of Private Eye becoming an investigative as well as a satirical magazine.

Early life

Hal Woolf was the second child born in Hampstead to Michael Yeatman Woolf (20 January 1869-14 May 1941) and his wife Rose Woolf née Nashelski (January 1872- 4 November 1940). His father was a dentist in Wimpole Street, London and his mother was from New Zealand. He had an elder sister, Eileen Hine Yeatman Woolf who was born in 1898 and died of cancer in 1918.

Education

Hal attended Westminster School and then studied at London University. Following this he studied art at Chelsea Polytechnic under Bernard Adams 1920-22 and later in Paris at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere.

Life and career

He exhibited at the Redfern Gallery and with the Royal Academy, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the London Group, and with the National Society of Painters and Gravers to which body he was elected a member in 1946.

Hal's first solo exhibition of 50 works was at The Redfern Gallery in the Autumn of 1929 which was reviewed in the Yorkshire Post & Leeds Intelligencer: "interesting, alive, and rich in promise", "well up in the second class".

The Times also reviewed the exhibition: "Mr Woolf will paint better when he simplifies his motives"

There was a posthumous exhibition of Woolf's work at the Woodstock Gallery in 1964. This followed an appeal to lend works by Greta Woolf. The exhibition was reviewed by Arthur Moyse in Freedom, The Anarchist Weekly, on 18 January 1964:

"of a type and style that graces so many conservative mixed shows", "pitched in the key of Pissarro", "Colour dies upon the canvas and every scene is seen through a grey veil", "Yet for all that Woolf was a man who loved his craft", "Hal Woolf deserves to be honoured, not for any cultural values it may offer but as the work of a man who loved the craft he chose to practice".

Hal painted in oil, watercolour and gouache. His work comprised townscapes, landscapes and portraits. The commissioned portraits seem to mostly date from the interwar years. A number of his portraits, especially the later ones, are of friends.

His 1930s landscapes & townscapes are often of Spanish scenes. In the 1950s he painted scenes closer to where he lived at 21 Delamere Terrace, Paddington.

When died he was living at 21 Bourne Terrace, Paddington and working for the postal department of London University.

Spain

Hal and his first wife, Mamie, travelled separately to Majorca in November 1935 and were caught up in the Spanish Civil War. The Battle of Majorca was from 16 August to 12 September 1936 when the Republican forces attempted an invasion.

Mamie & Hal were separated and made their own ways back to the UK.

Hal was in Barcelona before July 1936 painting landscapes and meeting left-wing intellectuals in bars. During the Spanish Civil War, he had a reputation as a fixer and his sympathies were with the Republicans but he was not a communist. He was in Barcelona during the second half of 1938 and may not have left until early 1939.

The Brian Sewell Archive contains a letter from Brian Sewell to Dick Brewis dated 14/September/1981 which is part of a lengthy correspondence from 1981 to 1982 which describes Hal’s time in Spain. The source is a Spanish emigré, then in his mid-eighties, whose alias was Jesus Hernandez:

"

1. HW was in Barcelona before July 1936, painting landscapes and mixing with intellectual bar (drinking – not legal) circles.
2. HW "came and went" after the war began. He seemed never to be short of money, though not particularly flush, and he seemed always to know a man who can do whatever had to be done.
3. HW was in Barcelona during the second half of 1938 when things were very difficult, and may not have left until early 1938, by which time Jesus had already left for London.
4. HW’s political sympathies were entirely Republican, but -and Jesus is very determined about this – not communist.
5. HW and Jesus met again in London in early summer 1939. Some time during the following year HW joined the army and left the contents of his studio (mostly Catalan landscapes) with Jesus.
6. Their friendship was never close after the war, even though it was HW’s money and contacts that enabled Jesus to escape from Barcelona during the worst period of the Civil War.
7. HW’s post-war address was for some time 48 Lower Sloane Street, but Jesus is not sure for how long; he also says he was a member of the Chelsea Arts Club.

"

Hal is on the Electoral Register at 48 Lower Sloane Street in 1946.

WW2 Service

Woolf served as a Temporary Captain in a Royal Engineers camouflage unit in North Africa. His war substantive rank was Lieutenant. Julian Trevelyan in his memoir Indigo Days referred to Hal "We drive to Haifa, and meet Barclay Russell and Hal Woolf, who is very much in his element as a camouflage officer and who makes many clandestine trips to Jerusalem". In a newspaper report of Hal's first conviction for possession of marijuana it says he was in East Africa. Hal volunteered for the army in 1939, went abroad in 1941 and returned to the UK in 1946. He was discharged with the rank of Captain. He was abroad in the army in the Middle East from at least 1942.

Use of marijuana

Whilst in Cairo during WW2 Hal developed the habit of smoking Indian hemp (marijuana). The Home Office report stated that he made no secret of his use of marijuana and that he did not smoke it in public. He was prosecuted twice: 1946 when he was fined £10 (equivalent to £524 in 2023) and 1948 when he was fined £30 (equivalent to £1,378 in 2023).

Connection to the Profumo scandal

Hal died in November 1962 and his story broke in August 1963. The Profumo scandal broke at the same time.

Hal knew at least two of the people on the fringes of the Profumo Scandal. In the 1950s he lived at 21 Delamere Terrace, Paddington in a house also lived in by Henry and Ruth Milton. Ruth had previously been known as Elizabeth Hamilton-Marshall. Her daughter Paula Hamilton-Marshall was a close friend of Christine Keeler and went to prison for perjury because she falsely accused Lucky Gordon of attacking Christine whereas it was in fact her brother John.

Hal was close friends with Henry & Ruby Milton and painted both of them, as did Lucian Freud who lived next door. Ruby was the model for Freud's La Voisine and Henry & his stepdaughter Paula were the models for Father & daughter.

Hal made Henry Milton the reserve executor of his will and both Henry & Ruby were beneficiaries.

Hal also knew Vasco Lozzolo.

Personal life

Hal married Mamie Clara Hurman (4 August 1902-1 June 1963) on 13 July 1927 and they divorced in 1937 following his adultery with Margaret Gibbons who became Hal's second wife. Mamie did not remarry. They had a child, Peter Claud Woolf, who died shortly after birth in 1929.

Mamie Clara Woolf

Before WW2 Mamie worked as a part-time personal assistant to Ivor Brown, drama critic of The Observer, for fifteen years until 1942 and also worked as an antiques dealer. From 1942 until 1944 she worked as a secretary in section D/CR of SOE. In the 1945 General Election Mamie was the election agent for Tom Wintringham. After WW2 Mamie returned to antique dealing and lived with her mother in Winchester. Mamie died on 1 June 1963. Her death certificate says she died of: Peritonitis, Carsinomatosis and Carcinoma of the breast.

On 3 October 1939 Hal married Margaret "Greta" Gibbons (19 November 1914-11 September 2011). She gave her father's name as Michael Charles Gibbons and his profession as engineer. Although she gives her name as Margaret Gibbons on the marriage certificate, the 1937 electoral register and the 1939 phone book (as Greta) her real name was Margaret or Greta Meta Luise Gerbeit and she was born in Berlin.

Greta’s father was Gustav Gerbeit. He served in the Imperial German Navy in WW1 and died of pneumonia in 1915. Her mother was Hannah or Hannchen Gerbeit née Gloger (13 April 1889 – 7 September 1945). Hannchen was an early member of the German Communist Party (KPD) and later of the German resistance to the Nazis. She was murdered by a Russian soldier on 7 September 1945.

Hannchen had two children with her husband, Lotte and Greta.

In the 1920s Hannchen met Heinrich Goldberg  who started a commune. She had two children, Vertuelmo and Sajero, with him and a third, Tamen, with another member of the commune.

Greta was a member of the Young Communists and came to the attention of the Gestapo. In the early 1930s she left home and started working as a photographer and model with Traut Hajdu. She featured on the cover of the AIZ. In 1933, when Hitler came to power, Greta left Germany with her friends and went to Ibiza where there was an embryonic artists’ colony.

When the Spanish Civil War started in 1936, Greta left Ibiza. In 1938 Hal Woolf  wrote to his wife Mamie that stated he was “living with a woman in France and that he intended to take a flat for her in London”.

Greta was brought to England by Hal in the mid to late 1930s.

Greta lived with Hal at 25 Fitzroy Square, London. After Hal joined the army she moved to 29 Baker Street, London where she stayed until 1947.

After Hal's return from overseas in 1945 they lived together for approximately a month and divorced in 1947. In that the same year Greta went to Venezuela and returned to the UK by 1949.

Greta used a number of aliases. The known ones are Margaret or Greta Gibbons, Margaret or Greta Woolf, Margaret Gibbings and Margaret Cotton.

In the 1950s Greta worked as a theatrical seamstress at the Old Vic and in the 1960s Margaret was an antiques dealer in Shepherds Bush Market and in the 1970s in Pierrepoint Row N1.

Greta's died on 11 September 2011 and her death was registered in Haringey, London.

Death

Hal's death was the subject of two inquiries: an internal one by the Met Police and a Home Office (HO) inquiry. The allegation by Hal's friends was that the Met police had caused his death but both inquiries found that this was not the case. The Home Office inquiry did criticise some aspects of police behaviour.

Hal was knocked down by a car in Park Lane, London and died of his injuries whilst in police custody.

The Home Office inquiry was published by HMSO in March 1964. The inquiry papers and the police files have been available at the UK National Archives since 1995.

On the day of the accident, Saturday 10 November 1962, Hal met two friends, Greta Woolf (his second ex-wife) and Malcolm Dunbar at approx 1:30pm at the York Minster pub in Dean Street. The presence of Malcolm Dunbar was omitted from the official inquiry's published report and from the Private Eye account but is mentioned in the manuscript transcript of the inquiry. Malcolm Dunbar was not called as a witness as he had died in July 1963 in what looked like suicide but the Coroner recorded an open verdict. Hal drank two half pints of beer (The York Minster, now The French House, only serves beer in half pints) and left at approx 2:15pm to visit another friend, Ronald Greville, at Westminster Hospital, a distance of approximately 1 ½ miles, arriving at approx 3pm. He left there at about 3:45pm.

The accident occurred at approx 5:30pm at the south end of Park Lane approximately opposite Achilles Way on the southbound carriageway. The inquiry assumed Hal was crossing from the East side. Park Lane was being remodelled at the time but this section was similar to the way it was in 2022. The inquiry papers include a map of the location with the position of witnesses. On the opposite side of the road was the fenced works compound with no footway. There was another fatal accident on Park Lane on 29 December 1961 when a woman was killed crossing at the former location of a pedestrian crossing. Pedestrians continued to be involved in accidents on Park Lane throughout the 1960s as not everyone used the new subways.

At the time of Hal's accident the traffic was very heavy with several lanes of traffic, it was drizzling and dusk or dark though the carriageway was well lit. Hal was knocked down by an E Type Jaguar registration number 773 ELH driven by Mr Ivor McLean. In his witness statement Mr McLean said:

"I had just left the last set of traffic lights southbound towards Hyde Park Corner and had just changed into second gear moving forward at a speed of about 10 to 15 mph. Suddenly I felt a bump at the front nearside of my car."

The windscreen of the car was broken, the bonnet dented and Hal was thrown into the air, somersaulted, fell on his back in the road and hit his head.

The driver stopped as did the car behind which contained two people. These three plus a pedestrian. who heard but did not see the accident, all went to help and all gave evidence at the HO inquiry.

The driver of the car behind, Mr Peter Callender, said in his witness statement:

"...I was driving my vehicle south along Park Lane towards Hyde Park Corner at approximately 10/15 mph. I was following an 'E' type Jaguar at a distance of approximately 25/30 yards."

An ambulance was called and Hal was taken to St. George's Hospital which in 1962 was at the south end of Park Lane.

Accounts differ as to whether Hal smelt of drink. The car driver wasn't sure and the other witnesses and the ambulance staff said he didn't. The Police said he did. The HO inquiry concluded that he was "not the worse for drink".

At the hospital Hal was examined by Dr Brian Toone and his head was X-Rayed. Whilst Hal was in the casualty department a male nurse, Peter Bennett, checked Hal's pockets and his haversack, described as being a wartime gas mask bag (similar to a modern courier bag) for identification. The haversack contained a half bottle of Teacher's whiskey of which approx one third had been consumed and a quantity of a herbal mixture wrapped in two packets of newspaper. In Hal's pocket was a small tin containing the same mixture. The Met Police laboratory later assessed the mixture to be a total of 165 grains (10.7 grams) of Indian hemp (marijuana) which was deemed sufficient for 33 cigarettes and was assessed to have a value of £8 5s 0d (equivalent to £222 in 2023).

The police officer who had been sent to the hospital to investigate the personal injury accident was shown the herbal mixture, assessed it as likely to be Indian hemp and arrested Hal.

Due to the quantity of marijuana found the Police thought they had arrested a dealer.

Dr Toone concluded from the X-Ray that there was no fracture of Hal's skull. He also assessed Hal's injuries as comparatively trivial.

Hal was handed over to the police who took him to West End Central police station where he was examined by the police surgeon, Dr James Henderson Peters. Dr Peters died on 12 July 1963 of myocardial ischaemia aged 63 and the inquiry relied on his written records. The inquiry was unwilling to express any view with regard to Dr. Peters actions without him having an opportunity of explaining them. Attempts were made to contact his widow to see if she wished to be legally represented but it was found that she was in transit to Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and it was judged that further action was impracticable.

The police failed to complete the correct paperwork so when Hal's friends reported him missing it was not identified that he was in police custody. The police also searched Hal's flat at 21 Bourne Terrace, Paddington without appropriate permission and charged him whilst he was semi-conscious. On all of these points they were criticised by the inquiry.

On the afternoon of Sunday 11 November 1962, Hal was found in the detention room slumped on the floor and he could not be roused. Dr Peters was called and Hal was taken back to St George's Hospital. On arrival, he was examined and no injuries further to those recorded the previous day were recorded. At around 11pm on Monday 12 November 1962, Hal was taken to the Atkinson Morley Hospital which is a specialist in head injuries.

Two operations were performed on him but he died on 23 November 1962 at 10:10pm. He had been kept under police guard until 22 November when the guard was removed at the request of the hospital matron. Independent expert evidence to the inquiry said that Hal's head injuries incurred in the accident were unsurvivable. From the outset, the police were of the view that Hal was either drunk, under the influence of illegal drugs or both. However, no tests for alcohol or drugs are mentioned in the inquiry report or the released Police files.

Meanwhile, Hal's friends, including Greta, had become concerned at his disappearance and reported him as missing on the 15th November but this was to a different London police station to the one where Hal had been taken and the failure to follow procedures on arresting someone meant that the fact Hal was in police custody was not identified. Greta's phone number was in Hal's diary as the person to contact in case of an accident but the police did not do this. The Police said that Hal had said he wanted no one to be contacted. The arresting officer claimed not to have seen this diary. The police did copy out names, addresses and telephone numbers, including Greta's, from it

The police at West End Central finally realised that Hal had been reported missing and at 1am on the 24th November phoned Mr Cotton who had reported him missing, to say where Hal was. When Mr Cotton phoned the hospital he found that Hal had died the night before

The police also finally found Hals’ diary and phoned Greta, at the same number as Mr Cotton, an hour later.

Hal's friends were suspicious, especially after they had seen his body, and proceeded to speak to as many medical staff who had treated Hal as they could.

Hal was cremated at St Marylebone Cemetery at 9:15 on 8/December/1962. His ashes were removed.

Inquest and inquiries

The inquest was held on 28 November 1962 and 5 December 1962 and recorded the cause of death as contusion of the brain following collision with a motorcar.

Hal's friends approached the solicitor Sydney Silverman MP to take up the case. The matter was passed to an assistant who failed to arrange legal representation at the inquest and told Greta and Mr Cotton to ask for an adjournment in order that proper legal representation could be arranged. The coroner refused to adjourn the inquest. The assistant then left Mr Silverman's firm taking with him all the case documents including Hals’ will.

Following a Private Eye article on 9 August 1963. and the wider circulation of the story in the national and regional press including The Times the Met conducted an internal inquiry headed by DS Axon. The Police apologised for mistakes that led to Hal's whereabouts not being recorded correctly. The Met inquiry papers are held at the UK National Archives

In November 1963 Greta sought to have the inquest verdict quashed and for there to be a new inquest. The application was refused

The Met inquiry failed to allay suspicions amongst Hal's supporters and after pressure, including questions in the House of Commons., the Home Office carried out its own private inquiry led by Norman Skelhorn QC. The inquiry had no power to compel the attendance of witnesses or take evidence under oath. Mr Skelhorn heard evidence from seventy-eight witnesses and was satisfied that "all the relevant evidence which was available was put before me"

The inquiry papers were released to the UK National Archives in 1995 and included a manuscript transcript of the questioning of witnesses. The catalogue does record that one group of the inquiry papers, HO 287/562, was missing at transfer but gives no indication of what it might contain. A Freedom of Information request in 2023 stated that "We have searched for this file and can confirm that the Home Office does not have it". There is also a gap in the internal references: HO/287/564 contains inquiry papers A1 to A28 and HO/287/565 contains inquiry papers A30 to A69. There are no documents from Special Branch or the security services in the inquiry papers despite Hal's connections including Malcolm Dunbar and Tomas Harris both of whom also died in disputed circumstances

At the inquiry one of Hal's friends, Marianna Sagovsky, said that Hal was "bad at crossing roads"

The Skelhorn inquiry found that Hal was not subjected to any violence or deliberately maltreated at the hands of the police. It did say that the police failed in their duty of care to Hal and failed to follow proper procedures which would have allowed his friends to find him before he died.

It recommended that searches of premises should only be carried out with the correct authorisation and that the charging of semi or unconscious suspects should cease.

Mr Skelhorn requested that the Home Office paid Greta's costs and this was done.

On the 26 March 1964, The Times reported "Woolf not maltreated at Police station".

In his memoirs "Public Prosecutor" published in 1981 Norman Skelhorn wrote:

"I was pleased that the evidence in the Woolf case exonerated the police from any blame for the unfortunate man’s death".

Private Eye

The Woolf case was first brought to public attention in Private Eye edition 43 published on Friday 9 August 1963. The story was picked up by the Sunday Mirror of 11 August 1963 and other national and regional papers followed.

This was the first piece of serious investigative journalism published by Private Eye and it came about almost by accident. Claud Cockburn, the left-wing journalist, was invited to guest edit one issue. Greta Woolf had been trying to get the newspapers interested in the Hal Woolf case without much success. She finally visited Cockburn at his home in Ireland and he decided to include it in Private Eye. The article was published under the headline "Come to Lovely London and find HOW TO BECOME DEAD Without Anyone Knowing How".

The article seems to be based almost entirely on the account of Greta as it matches her evidence to both the police inquiry and the Home Office inquiry.

Philip Knightley

Philip Knightley kept a file on Hal Woolf in a locked cabinet in his office at the Sunday Times. Knightley's archive is held at University of the Arts, London archive. The catalogue contains no entries relating to Hal Woolf.

Woodstock Gallery catalogue, 1964

Source:

Catalogue no.	Name	Date	Lent by	Notes
1	Black Thursday	c1920	Mrs Grayce Mitchell-Bush
2	Window at Oak Cottage	c1929	Mr & Mrs Ivor Brown	Editor of The Observer
3	Café, Place du Terte, Paris	c1926	Miss Teresa Johnstone-Saint
4	Rue Beauborg, Paris		Miss Adrienne Spanier	Watercolour
5	White Bird	c1947		Gouache
6	Olive Trees in Ibiza	1936
7	Self portrait	c1947	M. Gaston Berlemont	Proprietor of The York Minster
8	The Canal from Delamere Terrace	1951
9	Spring in Corfu	1938
10	Street in Cordoba	1936
11	Delamere Terrace	1951	Lady Audrey Lawrence
12	Porchester Square	1956
13	Delamere Terrace after demolition	1950
14	La Table Vide, Barbizon	1939
15	Portrait of a Bavarian Girl	1935
16	David	1947		Gouache
17	Study of Head	1947		Gouache
18	Dublin	1956
19	Demolition
20	Cafe Anne	1938
21	St Tropez			Watercolour
22	Fish			Gouache
23	Delamere Terrace		Mrs Greta Woolf	Oil Painting, Chessboard painted on back
24	Portrait of Catherine Morley		Mrs Greta Woolf
25	Paris Street	c1929		Watercolour
26	Corsican Farm	c1927	Mrs Monica Ewer	Watercolour
27	Clerkenwell Square	1932	Mrs Mabel Lethbridge	Watercolour
28	Portrait of Esther Biss		Lt. Col. Amyas Biss
29	Place de l'Odeon		Mrs Peter Henderson	Watercolour
30	Boat building in Ibiza		Mrs Ursula Blake
31	Hotel du Midi		Mrs Nancy Aarons	Watercolour
32	Corsica	1927	Mr & Mrs Harry Marks	Watercolour
33	Farmyard	1925
34	Regents Park	1925	Mrs Stanley Spurling
35	Billiards		Mrs M Tudor-Godwin of New York
36	Romance		James Proudfoot Esq	Watercolour
37	Madonna		Group Capt. E M Gillan
38	Plaza in Palma, Mallorca	1935
39	Cagnes-sur-mer	1936
40	Polensa, Mallorca	1935
41	Palma	1935
42	Cornice d'Or
43	Finchley Road	1931
44	Cacti		Mr & Mrs Michael Hankinson
45	Portrait of Francine
46	Portrait of Josephine		Mrs Francis Winham
47	Portrait of the first Mrs A R Thomas
48	The Curator of Antiquities, British Museum	1929	Mr W M Nathan
49	Bakehouse in Mallorca		Mrs Peggy Dowdall
50	Pimlico		Mr Finbar Gibbings
51	Portrait of Peter		Mr Peter Bennett
52	Cordoba
53	Place St Michel
54	Ibiza
55	Murcia
56	Paris Street	1939		Watercolour
57	Henley Bridge
58	Paris Window
59	Portrait of Charles Couchman
60	Palma Yacht Club			Watercolour
61	Chelsea Bridge			Watercolour
62	Promenade			Watercolour
63	London Street			Watercolour
64	Brighton Pier			Watercolour
65	Bridge
66	Woman's Head			Charcoal drawing
67	Study of building thru' trees
68	Peasant in Corfu
69	Paris river
70	Ivinghoe
71	Street in Palma
72	Village	1935
73	Street in Corfu
74	Country House and gardens
75	Farmyard study
76	House on hillock, Corfu		Mr G C Horn
77	Man and girl on verandah
78	Defence de bagner	1946		Watercolour
79	Lambeth	1938		Watercolour
80	Paris	1925	Mr Jose Bentwich of Jerusalem	Watercolour
	Eleven miscellaneous sketches in portfolio

Bibliography

• Buckman, David. Artists in Britain since 1945, Vol 2, M to Z. Bristol: Art Dictionaries Ltd. 2006. ISBN 978-0-9532609-5-9
• Davenport, Richard. An English Affair. London: Harper Collins. 2013. ISBN 978-0-00-743584-5
• Feaver, William. The Lives of Lucian Freud - Youth. London: Bloomsbury. 2019. ISBN 978-1-4088-5093-0
• Grigg, Mary. The Challenor Affair. London: Penguin Special, 1965
• Ingrams, Richard (1971). The Life and Times of Private Eye 1961-1971. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-003357-2.
• Skelhorn, Norman. Public Prosecutor. London: Harrap. 1981, ISBN 0-245-53763-5
• Skelhorn, Norman (1964). Report on Inquiry into the Action of the Metropolitan Police in relation to the Case of Mr. Herman Woolf. London: HMSO.
• Trevellyan, Julian. Indigo Days. London: MacGibbon & Kee. 1957