FORMER colonial service officer Henry Hall, who helped shape the modern commonwealth during his 40-year career before retiring to Ringwood, has died in the Royal Bournemouth Hospital at the age of 91.

Born Harold Percival Hall, the son of an army major in India in 1913, he was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School and served in the Punjab Regiment after graduating from Sand-hurst Royal Military College in 1933.

He joined the Indian Political Service in 1937 and held various posts, culminating in his appointment as Viceroy's Agent at the time of the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, and was awarded the MBE that year for his services.

Mr Hall later became a key figure in the creation of Malaysia as secretary to the 1956 Common-wealth Royal Commission which produced the independent constitution, later chairing the inter-governmental committee of Malaya, North Borneo and Sarawak to establish the new country.

His work in Malaya earned him the Cross of St Michael and St George to add to an MBE.

Other Commonwealth appointments included Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s and the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius where the power-sharing system he brokered was used as a model by the Home Office for Northern Ireland.

After leaving the Commonwealth Office in 1968, he served briefly with the Ministry of Defence and was later director of studies at the Royal Institute of Public Administration.

Even in retirement at Avon Castle on the outskirts of Ringwood, Mr Hall continued to dispense advice through the letters columns of the national press and most recently campaigned against the introduction of regional assemblies for England.

He is survived by his widow Margery, whom he married in 1939, and two of their three sons.

First published: November 9