George Alexander Ballard

George Alexander Ballard
Born	March 7, 1862 Bombay, India
Died	September 16, 1948 (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 Dreadngouth Project
2. The London Gazette: no. 25329. p. 1304. 18 March 1884.
3. The London Gazette: no. 26924. p. 7854. 31 December 1897.
4. "Naval & Military intelligence" The Times (London). Saturday, 15 February 1902. (36692), p. 12.
5. The London Gazette: no. 27632. p. 25. 1 January 1904.
6. The London Gazette: no. 28718. p. 3438. 13 May 1913. Retrieved 2010-10-25.
7. The London Gazette: no. 28724. p. 3903. 30 May 1913.
8. The London Gazette: no. 28881. p. 6794. 28 August 1914.
9. Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/42. f. 65.
10. The London Gazette: no. 32919. p. 2323. 18 March 1924.

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)

External links

• The Dreadnought Project - George Alexander Ballard