- Harold Ball
Harold C. Ball (29 May 1920 — 9 February 1942) was an
Australian rules football player for theMelbourne Football Club .Ball was one of five Melbourne VFL players to serve and be killed during
World War II (the others wereRon Barassi, Sr. ,Keith Truscott ,Syd Anderson and John Atkins).Debuting for Melbourne in 1939 and wearing the number 11 jumper, the young ruckman won the award for best first year player at the Demons, an award which was subsequently named in his honour - the "
Harold Ball Memorial Trophy ". He played 20 games, kicking a total of 30 goals and 3Brownlow Medal votes that year. He played in an VFL Grand Final and was part of Melbourne's winning premiership team.Ball played a further 13 games in 1940, including another premiership, before he enlisted in the Army. He served in the 2/9 Field Ambulance, Australian Army Medical Corps. He was killed in active service during the
Battle of Singapore on 9 February 1942.See also
*
VFL/AFL players who died in active service References
* Main, J. & Allen, D., "Ball, Harold", pp.211-213 in Main, J. & Allen, D., "Fallen — The Ultimate Heroes: Footballers Who Never Returned From War", Crown Content, (Melbourne), 2002. ISBN 1-74095-010-0
External links
* [http://www.awm.gov.au/roh/person.asp?p=147-922 Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour: Harold Charles Ball (VX48388)]
* [http://stats.rleague.com/afl/stats/players/H/Harold_Ball.html AFL Statistics: Harold Ball]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.