Corporal George Ball
- Rank
- Corporal
- Service number
- 650
- Decorations
- Military Medal
- Unit
- 16 Battalion
- Cause of death
- Killed in Action
- Place of death
- Le Hamel, France
- Date of death
- 4 July 1918
- Age
- 28
- Plaque number
- L31B
- Co-located plaques
- L31 - PTE Joseph Hennerty
- L31A - PTE Horace Gibson
- Dedicated by
- Family on 18 May 2019
- More information
Biography presented during plaque dedication:
Corporal George Ball was born to George and Isabella Ball in Cherry Gardens, South Australia, the eldest son in a family of four boys and six girls.
He left school at the age of 12 when the family lost their farm, joined a camel train in Adelaide and walked to Boulder. At the beginning of the war George was working as a timber cutter in the South West.
He enlisted in the AIF in August 1914, was allocated to 16 Battalion and left Melbourne on the HMAT Ceramic which became part of the second convoy to leave from Albany in December 1914.
George fought and was wounded on Gallipoli. Later in France, he was wounded at Mouquet Farm and was in action at the disastrous first attack on the town of Bullecourt. George was awarded the Military Medal for ‘daring courage and initiative’ when he led a bombing party in the face of machine gun fire during this attack.
He was promoted to Corporal and spent some time in England training and instructing. George re-joined his unit on the front in March 1918 and took part in the re-capture of the village of Villers -Bretonneux.
In July the 16 Battalion was assigned to attack a German stronghold just south of the village of Hamel.
Corporal George Ball MM, service number 650 of 16 Battalion, was killed in action on 4 July 1918 at Le Hamel, France. He was 28 years of age.
He was initially buried at the Hamel community cemetery, and then reinterred at Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, France.
His plaque is placed alongside those of Private Horace William Gibson and Private Joseph Leonard Hennerty, who were in the same 16 Battalion and died on the same day.