CHRONICLE & ECHO, DECEMBER 1934

WORKED SINCE HE WAS SEVEN

MR. J. BALL'S LIFE OF PUBLIC SERVICE

GOLDEN WEDDING

A WELL-KNOWN figure in the insurance world, Mr. John Ball, of 121 Colwyn-road, Northampton, and his wife will celebrate their golden wedding on Christmas Day, when they hope to have all members of their family present.

They were both born at Leicester in 1864. Mr. Ball's father died when he was only seven and a half years of age, and four children, the eldest of whom was nine years old, were left.

Consequently he had to start work immediately, running errands and doing odd jobs. At the age of 12 he was working on the railway, being in duty for 12 hours at a stretch in the daytime and at night on alternative weeks, with no time off for meals, and only three days' holiday in a year.

The only education he had was at the Working Men's College at Leicester. At the age of 18 he was teaching a class of men over 50 years of age to read and write.

"When I taught these men to read the newspapers, add up wages, and write a letter to sons or daughters who had emigrated, and they came to me almost with tears in their eyes, I felt I was being well paid," Mr. Ball told a "Chronicle and Echo" reporter.

INSURANCE RECORD

"I started in insurance work in 1882, and have been at it ever since, so I think I can claim to be the oldest insurance man in the county."

Mr. Ball married Miss Emma Priestly at Leicester in 1884. She was one of the first scholars in the first Board school under the Leicester School Board. Later she became an apprentice teacher at the same school, and subsequently taught at Preston and Enderby.

In 1887 Mr. Ball went to Loughborough in the insurance business, and later to Hinckley and Tamworth, and came to Northampton in 1889. He soon became acquanted with the local Liberal Association, and through that was co-opted a member of the old Library, Museum and Technical Art Committee, which included the governors of the old Grammar School, now the Town and County School.

"At that time," he said, "the library and museum committee were a very strong body, far different from the present day. At that time there were very strong body. Men like the late Mr. Harry Manfield, Mr. Beeby Thompson, and Sir Henry Randall and Mr. Crick were authorities in their own particular line. The late Mr. Thomas George was curator."

WORK FOR BLIND

One of the first committees upon which Mr. Ball served was that of the old Saturday evening talks, under the chairmanship of Mr. S. S. Campion.

About 1895 Mr. E. L. Poulton and Mr. Ball were able to make the first organised effort in the town on behalf of the then Northampton Blind Association by taking all the known blind with their friends to Althorp Park for an outing. This was done for several years.

The Working Men's Committee for the Blind and the White Heather Club are carrying on social work which was begun by Mr. Ball and Mr. Poulton.

When Mr. Harry Battle resigned the secretaryship of Pearson's Fresh Air Fund, which was started in 1907, Mr. Ball took over the duties, and continued in office until 1932. Mrs. Ball also took a keen interest in the work, and two years ago they were presented with a Chippendale chair and an electric stove at a public gathering in the Council chamber. Mr. Ball had been secretary for 26 years.

WAR TRAGEDY

When the County Council and Urban District Council Act was passed, Mr. Ball was elected to Kingsthorpe Urban Council for the Kingsley district, and represented it until Kingsthorpe was brought into the borough. At the present time Mr. Ball and Mr. S. S. Campion are the two oldest trustees of the Municipal Charities, and it is believed that Mr. Ball is the only man to be a trustee of the charities who was not elected by the Town Council. He was appointed by the London Charity Commissioners.

Mr. and Mrs. Ball have been members of the Unitarian Church for 40 years. They have had seven children, five sons and two daughters. Four boys served in the war, three were invalided out and one died a few years later.

Mr. Ball had offices at Luton, Reading, and Northampton when war broke out, but he had to close the first two as there was nobody to look after them. Subsequently the Luton office was re-opened. Mr. Ball claims that his firm is the oldest firm of insurance brokers in the county.