Harry Standish Ball died at Haslemere on 26th September, 1941, after a prolonged illness, at the age of 53.
He was born in South Africa in 1888, and received his early education at St. John’s College, Johannesburg. He matriculated at the Cape University in 1904 and entered the Transvaal University College in 1906, where he graduated first in the final examination for the Mining Diploma, and was awarded the gold medal of the Transvaal Chamber of Mines and a research bursary of £250, as a result. Meanwhile he took the usual practical course on Rand mines.
In 1910 he came to England, and paid visits to mines in Cornwall, Wales and Scotland, in connection with post-graduate studies and research work.
He then went to Canada where he had a year’s course in science at the McGill University, Montreal, resulting in the granting of the B.Sc and M.Sc. degrees.
On his return to England in 1911 he presented a paper to the Institution on ‘Economics of Tube-milling’; for which he was awarded both the ‘Arthur Claudet’ and the ‘William Frecheville’ Students’ Prizes. In 1912, he received from the Cape University the degree M.Sc., having returned to South Africa in the previous year.
From 1911 to 1915 he was respectively “employed as assistant surveyor on Modder ‘B’, experimental metallurgist on the head office staff of Rand Mines, Ltd., and surveyor on Ferreira Deep and the Nourse Mines, Ltd.
In November, 1915, he was gazetted Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers (Tunnelling Corps) and served with the British Expeditionary Force in France until February, 1919, first with the 170 Tunnelling Company, R.E., then as Commandant of the First Army Mine School, in which capacity he was responsible for the training of officers and men of the Tunnelling companies in all military mining subjects. He was also lecturer on mining warfare to the American Expeditionary Force. He left the Army with the rank of Major, R.E., his last military appointment being as Assistant Inspector of Mines, G.H.Q. He was awarded the Military O.B.E., and was three times mentioned in despatches in addition to one general mention.
He was the author of several official technical treatises for the War Office, and on his return to civil life he presented another paper to the Institution on ‘The Work of the Miner on the Western Front, 1915-1918’.
In May, 1919, he was appointed cementation engineer, subsequently manager, of the François Cementation Co., Ltd., and in December, 1921, he went to Trinidad as assistant manager to the Apex (Trinidad) Oilfields, Ltd.
In 1924 he returned to Canada to report on gold, silver, nickel and asbestos properties, and in the following year he was appointed chief surveyor, efficiency engineer and acting general manager of the Sub-Nigel Gold Mining Co., Ltd., on the Witwatersrand.
In 1926 he became managing director of the Central Area Exploitation Co. (Venezuela), Ltd., controlling oilfields in South America, and subsequent to 1930 he occupied three years on reporting work in South Africa. Returning to England, he was, in 1933, appointed Principal of the School of Metalliferous Mining (Cornwall) at Camborne, a position that he occupied with distinction until his death.
Major Ball was admitted to Studentship of the Institution in 1910; he was elected an Associate in 1915 and transferred to Membership in 1922. He was elected a Member of Council in 1938.
Vol. 51, Trans I.M.M. 1941-2, pp. 329-30
