The hall boy or hallboy was the lowest ranked male servant

Domestic worker

A domestic worker is a man, woman or child who works within the employer's household. Domestic workers perform a variety of household services for an individual or a family, from providing care for children and elderly dependents to cleaning and household maintenance, known as housekeeping...

 on the staff of a great house

Great house

A great house is a large and stately residence; the term encompasses different styles of dwelling in different countries. The name refers to the makeup of the household rather than to any particular architectural style...

. Usually a boy

Boy

A boy is a young male human , as contrasted to its female counterpart, girl, or an adult male, a man.The term "boy" is primarily used to indicate biological sex distinctions, cultural gender role distinctions or both...

 or young teenager, his name derived from the fact that his main duties were in the servants' hall

Servants' Hall

The Servants' Hall is a common room for domestic workers in a great house. The term usually refers to the servants' dining room.If there is no separate sitting room, the Servants' Hall doubles as the place servants may spend their leisure hours and serves as both sitting room and dining room.Meals...

, where he may also have slept.

Like his female counterpart, the scullery maid

Scullery maid

In great houses, scullery maids were the lowest-ranked and often the youngest of the female servants and acted as assistant to a kitchen maid. The scullery maid reported to the cook or chef...

, the hall boy would have been expected to work up to 16 hours per day, seven days per week. His duties were often among the most disagreeable in the house, such as emptying chamber pot

Chamber pot

A chamber pot is a bowl-shaped container with a handle, and often a lid, kept in the bedroom under a bed or in the cabinet of a nightstand and...

s for the higher-ranking servants, and (in the absence of a boot boy

Boot boy

A boot boy, often simply boots, was an English household servant. Usually a boy or young teenager, the boots was the lowest-ranking male servant; his main job was to clean, polish and care for the household members' boots and shoes, although he may have done other odd jobs as well, particularly in...

) cleaning the boot

Boot

A boot is a type of footwear but they are not shoes. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle and extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is clearly distinguishable from the rest of the sole, even if the two are made of one piece....

s.

A hall boy could rise through the ranks and, if fortunate, eventually become a valet

Valet

Valet and varlet are terms for male servants who serve as personal attendants to their employer.- Word origins :In the Middle Ages, the valet de chambre to a ruler was a prestigious appointment for young men...

 or butler. Arthur Inch, butler technical consultant for the film Gosford Park

Gosford Park

Gosford Park is a 2001 British-American mystery comedy-drama film directed by Robert Altman and written by Julian Fellowes. The film stars an ensemble cast, which includes Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins, Alan Bates, and Michael Gambon...

, stated in an interview that he began his life in service as a hall boy at the age of 14.