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Ldg.Tel. David Ballard
Royal Navy HMS Neptune
from:Alderhot, Hampshire
David Ballard was born in Belfast in 1899, his father had been stationed in Ireland with the Rifle Brigade and married a local lass and, upon discharge, had settled in Belfast. However, David was just a few months old when his father was called back to the colours and sent on one of the first ships to South Africa upon war breaking out with the Boers, as with unusual foresight, the Military had sent him from Dublin, in 1895, to Aldershot for training as mounted infantry. David, and brother Louis, born in Aldershot in 1897, did not see their father again for nearly three years. With the end of the war, the family settled in Aldershot and David was a "shop boy" when he enlisted in 1914 in the Royal Navy, as a boy seaman, at the minimum age of 15.1/2. He required written permission from his father, together with his birth certificate. He trained as a Telegraphist and progressed through the grades. Two years later, he was aboard the Dreadnought Battleship HMS Neptune at the Battle of Jutland, where one of his friends, Boy Cornwall, earned a posthumous VC aboard HMS Chester. He served the rest of the war on a destroyer and a cruiser. After the war he served on seven more destroyers and two light cruisers before serving on the River Gunboat HMS Gnat on the River Yangtse for two years. He served on an aircraft carrier and a patrol boat before joining the Cruiser HMS Durban on a 2.1/2 year good-will cruise around South America and the West Indies. He next was aboard another cruiser and the famous battleship, HMS Nelson, and a depot ship before discharge upon completion of 22 years service in 1939. David was awarded the 1914/15 Star, War Medal, Victory Medal and Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. He was a Leading Telegraphist and had three Good Conduct Stripes.
