George Alexander Ballard

George Alexander Ballard
Born (1862-03-07)March 7, 1862
Bombay, India
Died September 16, 1948(1948-09-16) (aged 86)
Hill House, Downton, near Salisbury, Wiltshire
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch Royal Navy
Years of service 1875–1921
Rank Admiral
Commands held Janus
Isis
Royal Arthur[1]
Terrible
Hampshire
Commonwealth
Britannia
Battles/wars Mahdist War, Third Anglo-Burmese War, First World War
Other work Author

Admiral George Alexander Ballard, CB (7 March 1862 – 16 September 1948) was an officer of the Royal Navy and a historian.

Biography

Ballard was the eldest son of General John Archibald Ballard (1829–1880), and his wife Joanna, the daughter of Robert Scott-Moncrieff, and was born at Malabar Hill, Bombay on 7 March 1862.

He joined the Royal Navy as a sub-lieutenant, was promoted lieutenant 15 March 1884,[2] and commander 31 December 1897.[3] In February 1902 he was ordered to six months' service at the Admiralty.[4] He was further promoted captain 31 December 1903.[5] In May 1913, Ballard was appointed a naval aide-de-camp to King George V,[6] and in the King´s Birthday Honours 3 June 1913 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath.[7] The following year he was appointed rear admiral 27 August 1914.[8] He became Admiral Superintendent Malta Dockyard in September 1916.[9]

After a long and active career in the Navy he retired as vice-admiral in 1921 and was advanced to the rank of admiral on the Retired List in 1924.[10]

During the 1930s he contributed two extensive series of technical articles on the warships of the mid-Victorian Navy to the quarterly Mariner's Mirror, one series on the armoured vessels (which was subsequently republished in a consolidated form in his book The Black Battlefleet) and one on lesser warships.

Archives

  • Correspondence and papers, MS 80/200 NRA 20623; National Maritime Museum
  • Memoirs, 1988/89; Royal Navy Museum, Portsmouth

Publications

  • The Influence of the Sea on the Political History of Japan (John Murray, London, 1921)
  • America and the Atlantic (Duckworth & Co, London, 1923)
  • Rulers of the Indian Ocean (Duckworth & Co, London, 1927)
  • The Black Battlefleet (Nautical Publications Company, 1980)

References

  1. ↑ The Dreadnought Project
  2. ↑ "No. 25329". The London Gazette. 18 March 1884. p. 1304.
  3. ↑ "No. 26924". The London Gazette. 31 December 1897. p. 7854.
  4. ↑ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times (36692). London. 15 February 1902. p. 12.
  5. ↑ "No. 27632". The London Gazette. 1 January 1904. p. 25.
  6. ↑ "No. 28718". The London Gazette. 13 May 1913. p. 3438.
  7. ↑ "No. 28724". The London Gazette. 30 May 1913. p. 3903.
  8. ↑ "No. 28881". The London Gazette. 28 August 1914. p. 6794.
  9. ↑ Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/42. f. 65.
  10. ↑ "No. 32919". The London Gazette. 18 March 1924. p. 2323.

Sources

  • "Bombay Almanac"
  • The Times (18 Sept 1948), 4
  • The Times (28 Sept 1948), 7
  • A. J. Marder, From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow: The Royal Navy in the Fisher Era, 1904–1919, 5 vols. (1961–70)
  • S. W. Roskill, Hankey, Man of Secrets, 3 vols. (1970–74)
  • N. A. Lambert, Sir John Fisher's Naval Revolution (1999)
Honorary titles
Preceded by
J de M Hutchison		 Naval Aide-de-Camp to the King
1913 to ?		 Succeeded by
Unknown
Military offices
Preceded by
Arthur Limpus		 Admiral Superintendent, Malta Dockyard
1916–1918		 Succeeded by
Brian Barttelot
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