CHRONICLE & ECHO, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22 1944

TWO LOAVES AND 1/6 A WEEK FOR FAMILY OF FIVE

"THE GOOD OLD DAYS" WERE "BAD OLD DAYS"

ON Christmas Day, 60 years ago Mr. and Mrs. John Ball, 121 Colwyn-road, Northampton, were married at Leicester and on Monday the family will celebrate both Christmas and the diamond wedding of their parents.

It will be a triumphant occasion, for Mr. Ball told me he had managed to buy a turkey - at regulation price - writes a "Chronicle and Echo" reporter.

Mr. Ball will not hear of the days of his youth being described as "the good old days." Just one comparison between to-day and yesterday is apparent at any time anywhere where women and girls may be seen, asserts Mr. Ball. Women to-day are at least two inches taller and carry themselves more like human beings than they did when he was young, he says.

OLDEST WORKING INSURANCE BROKER?

When he came to Northampton about 1888, Mr. Ball, who believes he is one of the oldest insurance brokers in the country still carrying on business - he still works in partnership with his son, Mr. Eric Ball, at 65, Abington-street - asserts that he "fell on his feet."

He was born in 1864, an era of invention with machinery just taking its place. His father died when he was seven-and-a-half-years-old, and the Guardians of Leicester granted his mother 1s 6d per week and two loaves for the upkeep of herself and four children.

TAUGHT THE THREE "R's"

Even in those dark days young John Ball was destined to get on, and when he was 18 he was the centre of a very strange (for these days) picture. He was tutor of a class learning the elements of reading, writing and arithmetic - and the class was composed of men of over 50 years of age.

The result of this new-found education? The man who had become proficient in reading simple sentences would tell his tutor with pride that he would now buy a paper himself instead of sharing the "communal" paper subscribed for by the class. The man who had learned to write would show with pride a simple letter he had written to a relative.

And the man who had learned simple arithmetic found out that he was being robbed of 1s. 6d. every week by his foreman. Knowing how to do sums meant he was being paid better than ever before in his life.

CLIMBED RAILWAY SIGNALS AT 12

Young John started work when his father died and when he was 12 he was working on the railway 12 hours every day. In the bitter winter he had to walk two-and-a-half miles along the railway, climbing up signals and filling and trimming the lamps, with hands that were dead from cold.

In 1882, two years before he married Miss Emma Priestley, John Ball started in business as in insurance agent. One of the first friends he made when he came to Northampton was Alderman E. L. Poulton, and the friendship lasted until Alderman Poulton died. With Alderman Poulton he was elected a trustee of the Queen Victoria Jubilee Trust Fund, later merged into the Northampton Nursing Institute, after it had provided funds for a maternity home in commemoration of the Queen's reign.

Old Northampton was recalled by Mr Ball, who said that when he came to the town there were 29 public-houses between the top of Bridge-street and the level crossing. At that time, when the town had half its present population, there were at least one-third more public-houses than now.

He saw the coming of all the elementary schools, and recalled that at the end of the last century, Mr. Gladstone asked in the House of Commons for the education rate to be raised from 9d. to 1s. in the £. He promised it should not be raised above that level, but in the three years he had to eat his words, and said he was glad to do so. William Ewart Gladstone and the old "Red Earl" Spencer were the two finest men, mentally and physically, he had ever known said Mr. Ball.

LONGEVITY TABLE "UNFAIR"

There is one criticism Mr. Ball makes of his own business. He says that the longevity tables used by insurance companies are unfair. Northampton was noted for being the home of the first of such tables, which were compiled by a sexton of All Saints' Church , and which extended over a period of 60 years. In an amended form the tables are still used by insurance companies.

The mortality tables were overhauled every 10 years under the census, but before actuaries could get results tables would be four to five years out of date, and the figures used would be three or four years outdated.

The "unfairness" of the scheme was emphasised when Mr. Ball pointed out that the number of people over 70 years of age living in 1940 was three times greater than the figure of 1860, and the birth mortality rate would be less than half that on 1860.

OUTINGS FOR SOME 38,000 CHILDREN

Mr. Ball has taken a large part in Northampton affairs. Towards the end of last century he became secretary of the local Trades Council, and while holding that office represented Kingsley Park Ward on the Urban Council, until the district was absorbed into the Borough in 1900.

From about 1895 he organised an outing for blind people each year, and in 1900 he organised the Pearson's Fresh Air Fund outings giving poor children a day's outing in the country each year, and during the 27 years over which this continued, Mr. Ball said he must have organised outings for some 38,000 children.

These are a few of the memories which will be discussed by 81-years-old Mr. and Mrs. Ball when they unite again with their four sons and two daughters, and their grandchildren on Christmas Day. Another son, Bert, died some years ago.