George Alexander Ballard

Admiral George A. Ballard, seen as a Commodore, Second Class.
Photograph: © National Portrait Gallery, London.

Admiral George Alexander Ballard, C.B., Retired (7 March, 1862 – 15 September, 1948) was an officer of the Royal Navy during the First World War and a historian.

Life & Career

George Alexander Ballard was born on 7 March, 1862, at Malabar Hill, Bombay, the eldest child of Captain (later Lieutenant-General) John Archibald Ballard, C.B., of the Royal (Bombay) Engineers. Ballard was educated at Burney's Royal Academy, Gosport, and obtained a nomination for the Royal Navy from Captain (later Admiral Sir) Charles Fellowes. He went up to London for the examination at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich with ten others from Burney's, six of whom passed, one of whom was Christopher Cradock. He entered the training ship Britannia on 15 January, 1875, and left on 21 December, 1876. He later recalled:

Two years spent thus represented at that period the first stage of a naval officer's career. Many months before it came to an end most of us were longing to finish it and get away to a seagoing life with all its anticipated excitements, although in point of fact very few had any but the vaguest idea of what sort of a life it would prove to be. But I think nevertheless that to the majority in after years, the period spent at Dartmouth in the old Britannia remained on the whole a pleasant memory. It certainly is to me.

Ballard was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 15 March, 1884.

On 31 December, 1897 he was promoted to the rank of Commander.

Captain

Ballard was promoted to the rank of Captain on 31 December, 1903.

On 15 May, 1906, Ballard was appointed in command of the first class protected cruiser Royal Arthur in reserve. On 3 July he was appointed in command of the first class protected cruiser Terrible. On 22 July, the Terrible left Portsmouth for China with a relief crew for the Astræa. He took command of the armoured cruiser Hampshire on 20 August, 1907. Upon giving up command of the Channel Fleet in March, 1909, the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Charles Beresford, wrote of Ballard, "No defect, very zealous, sound physically. Recommended for advancement. A very clever officer, hard working, and knows the Service. Will make a good Admiral." In November Rear-Admiral Paul W. Bush opined, with Vice-Admiral George Neville's concurrence, that Ballard was "a very zealous Captain & handles his ship well." On 31 December, 1909, he was appointed in command of the battleship Commonwealth. In May, 1910, a Court of Enquiry was held following the abandonment of Commonwealth's steam trial. Their Lordships expressed Their "severe displeasure on account of the want of knowledge shewn in the preparation of the ship for sea under the weather conditions which prevailed at the time." On 9 December he was given command of Commonwealth's sister-ship, Britannia.

The Secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence, Sir Charles L. Ottley, a former Director of Naval Intelligence, wrote to Winston Churchill of Ballard in October, 1911, "I am in great hopes he may e'er long return to an important post at the Admiralty," and advocated he be associated with any committee on staff reform, writing, "He would approach the matter from the standpoint of one who knew the old system."

Ottley also informed Churchill that Ballard wrote for The Contemporary Review magazine under the pseudonym "Master Mariner," therefore contravening Article 12 of the King's Regulations and Admiralty Instructions on communicating with the press on Service matters. Ottley also forwarded a number of Ballard's somewhat subversive memoranda to Churchill, in the knowledge that, "You will I know safeguard his anonymity."

Churchill offered Ballard the post of Director of Naval Intelligence and on 22 November he accepted. He was appointed to President, additional, for special service at the Admiralty on 1 December. On leaving Britannia Vice-Admiral Callaghan described him as "A V.G. Captain of a ship. Has intellectual qualities above the average & v.g. judgement." On 8 January, 1912, he was appointed Director of the Operations Division on the newly-formed Admiralty War Staff.

On 10 May, 1913, he was appointed a Naval Aide-de-Camp to King George V, vice Hutchison. On the occasion of the King's birthday he was appointed an Ordinary Member of the Third Class, or Companion, in the Civil Division of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (C.B.) on 3 June.

Ballard assumed the duties of Admiral of Patrols on 1 May, 1914, with the rank of Commodore, First Class.

Great War

On 27 August, 1914, Ballard was promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral, vice Carden.

An interesting perspective on Ballard is offered by Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry F. Oliver, who became Chief of the Admiralty War Staff at the end of 1914:

We had a useless R.A. on the East Coast of England and I could not get him shifted. When the Germans bombarded Scarborough and Hartlepool we knew from Room 40 the afternoon before that something was intended but not enough to know what. He had definite orders to send out 2 submarines from Hartlepool to be at gun range, according to visibility, off the harbour at dawn. He failed to send them out the night before and they did not start out till after the bombardment began[,] one was crossing the bar while the shells were falling. We lost a fine chance of laming a battle cruiser and perhaps bringing on an engagement if her consorts delayed retiring to help her. I could not get him shifted for that so I took bits of his command away at the north and south ends till there was none left.

On 6 November, 1915, Ballard became Rear-Admiral Commanding, East Coast of England.

N. A. M. Rodger has opined that, "His reputation may have suffered from the German raids of 1914 and 1916; certainly there was no vacancy in the naval war staff under Sir Henry Jackson for so clever and independent an officer." Quite apart from the slur this completely unsourced statement casts on Sir Henry Jackson, it also denigrates the men already on the War Staff.

On 1 May, 1916, Ballard was succeeded as Rear-Admiral Commanding, East Coast of England. He then went on Half Pay until he was appointed Senior Officer in Charge at Malta and Admiral Superintendent of Malta Dockyard on 24 September, and assumed command on 28 September.

In May, 1917, he was criticised by the Board of Admiralty for the torpedoing of S.S. Ivernia on 1 January, for allowing it to proceed through the Cerigotto Channel by day contrary to instructions. On 17 September he was informed that orders appeared to have been given in a "haphazard" manner in regards to an operation where special service vessel Zeus was lost. He relinquished duty as Admiral Superintendent at Malta on 16 November, 1918.

Post-War

He was promoted to the rank of Vice-Admiral on 11 February, 1919, vice Boyle. He was placed on the Retired List on 15 June, 1921 at his own request "in order to facilitate the promotion of younger officers." On 3 March, 1924 he was advanced to the rank of Admiral on the Retired List.

He died suddenly on 15 September, 1948, aged eighty-six, at his home, Hill House, Downton, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, from myocardial degeneration, arterio sclerosis and carcinoma of the prostate.

See Also

• Wikipedia

Bibliography

• Ballard, Vice-Admiral G. A., C.B. (1921). The Influence of the Sea on the Political History of Japan. London: John Murray.
• Ballard, Vice-Admiral G. A., C.B. (1923). America and the Atlantic. London: Duckworth & Co..
• Ballard, Admiral G. A., C.B. (1927). Rulers of the Indian Ocean. London: Duckworth & Co..
• Ballard, Admiral G. A. (1980). The Black Battlefleet. Lymington; Greenwich: Nautical Publishing Company Limited and The Society for Nautical Research. ISBN 0245530304.

Papers

• Unfinished memoirs in the possession of the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth. 1988.89. Two copies (one and two) in the possession of the National Maritime Museum.
• Uncatalogued papers in the possession of the National Maritime Museum.
• Uncatalogued papers in the possession of the National Maritime Museum.

Service Records

• The National Archives. ADM 196/88.
• The National Archives. ADM 196/42.
• The National Archives. ADM 196/20.

Naval Appointments
Preceded by John M. de Robeck	Admiral of Patrols 1914 – 1915	Succeeded by Stuart Nicholson
	Rear-Admiral Commanding, East Coast of England 1915 – 1916

Naval Appointments
Preceded by Herbert L. Heath	Head of War Division 1 Jan, 1904	Succeeded by Harry Jones
Preceded by Charles L. Napier	Captain of H.M.S. Euryalus 15 Jan, 1906 – ?	Succeeded by Archibald G. H. W. Moore
Preceded by Archibald G. H. W. Moore	Captain of H.M.S. Royal Arthur 15 May, 1906 – ?	Succeeded by Norman C. Palmer
Preceded by Henry H. Campbell	Captain of H.M.S. Terrible 3 Jul, 1906 – ?	Succeeded by Richard M. Harbord-Hamond
Preceded by Robert K. Arbuthnot	Captain of H.M.S. Hampshire 20 Aug, 1907 – ?	Succeeded by Stanhope Hawke
Preceded by Horace L. A. Hood	Captain of H.M.S. Commonwealth 31 Dec, 1909 – ?	Succeeded by Price V. Lewes
Preceded by Montague E. Browning	Captain of H.M.S. Britannia 9 Dec, 1910 – ?	Succeeded by Charles F. Thorp
Preceded by ?	Director of Operations Division 8 Jan, 1912	Succeeded by Arthur C. Leveson
Preceded by John M. de Robeck	Admiral of Patrols 1 May, 1914 – ?	Succeeded by ?
Preceded by Arthur H. Limpus	Admiral Superintendent, Malta Dockyard 24 Sep, 1916 – ?	Succeeded by Brian H. F. Barttelot

Footnotes

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