Harold Ball
Australian rules footballer (1920–1942)
Harold Charles Ball (29 May 1920 – 9 February 1942) was an Australian rules football player for the Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL), who also served with the 2/9 Field Ambulance, Australian Army Medical Corps.
He was captured, tortured, and executed on 9 February 1942 by the Japanese, during their assault on Singapore that began on 8 January 1942.
Family
The son of George Henry Ball, an engine driver, and Daisy Alma Ball, née Wellington, Ball was born in Mildura, on 29 May 1920.
Footballer
Recruited from Merbein as a ruckman, he worked at the MCG as a groundsman.
He played his first senior VFL game for Melbourne, aged 18, in the first ruck against Jack Dyer and Percy Bentley of Richmond at their peak, at the MCG, on Saturday 22 April 1939 (round one). Ball marked and rucked well in a side that lost by 37 points to Richmond, 11.18 (84) to 17.19 (121).
He played in all of Melbourne's 20 VFL matches in 1939, kicked 30 goals, received three Brownlow Medal votes, was voted best first-year player at Melbourne, and played in the second ruck for the team that won the 1939 Grand-Final by 53 points.
He played in 13 of the possible 21 senior VFL games for Melbourne in 1940.
On Saturday, 21 September 1940, in the Preliminary Final match against Essendon, which Melbourne won by 5 points, 12.18 (90) to 12.13 (85), Ball was the resting forward pocket ruckman. However, in the third quarter, due to injuries to his teammates, Melbourne was forced to shift Ball to full-back.
The public source identifies “Harold Ball” as australian rules footballer (1920–1942). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Harold, Ball and Australian.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5660029. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1920, 1942, 1939 and 1940.
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This entry incorporates text from “Harold 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.