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Alfred Ball

Royal Air Force air marshal

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ4722287 ↗
Source-derived summary

Air Marshal Sir Alfred Henry Wynne Ball, (18 January 1921 – 25 January 2012) was a Royal Air Force officer who became Deputy Commander of Strike Command.

RAF career

Educated at Campbell College in Belfast, Ball joined the Royal Air Force in 1937. He served in the Second World War flying Spitfires and commanding No. 682 Squadron, No. 542 Squadron, No. 540 Squadron and finally No. 13 Squadron, he was mentioned in despatches twice. He was appointed Chief of Staff at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in 1968, Director General of RAF Organisation in 1971 and UK Military Representative to the Central Treaty Organization at Ankara in 1975. He went on to be Deputy Commander of Strike Command in 1977 before retiring in 1979.

In retirement he became an advisor to International Computers Limited.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Alfred Ball” is royal Air Force air marshal. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Alfred, Ball and Royal, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1921, 2012, 1937, 1968—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1921-01-18. For this dossier, Alfred, Ball and Royal is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “royal Air Force air marshal” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4722287. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1921, 2012, 1937 and 1968.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

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  2. Expand the search: follow Alfred Ball primary sources, Alfred Ball archive and Alfred research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Alfred Ball” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.