Ernest Frederick Ball

Ernest Frederick Ball, born in Plymouth on the 17th of June 1889, was the eldest of three children born to Frederick William and Annie Ball (née May). Frederick William was from Veryan in Cornwall and Annie was from Falmouth. The UK, Royal Navy and Royal Marine War Graves Roll, 1914-1919, records Ernest as a Storehouseman 1st Grade, at H M Dockyard, Devonport, the only casualty of the Laurentic described as a civilian .

Ernest’s father, a retired Chief Petty Officer in the Navy, was working as a dockyard labourer when he died in a tragic accident at Plymouth Dockyard on January 21st 1904.

In the census of 1911 Ernest is at 12 Neath Road, Plymouth, working as a storehouseman’s assistant in the dockyard, living with his mother and two younger siblings Charles William age 13 and Annie May age 12.

We don’t know when Ernest joined the Laurentic crew but we do know that he was at home a month before setting out on the Laurentic, bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the 24th of January 1917. The Western Morning News on the 19th of February 1917 reported at some length on a memorial service at King St, Wesleyan Church, Plymouth, for captain Ernest Frederick Ball of the 10th Company of the local Boys’ Brigade. The minister offered heartfelt sympathy to those nearest and dearest to him. “ Apart from being a devoted son…. he had won a good report at the Dockyard among his fellow workers and for years he had devoted himself without stint to the work of the Boys’ Brigade…..So strong, so bright, so energetic was he, who would have dreamt of such a sudden summons”.

Ernest’s body was never recovered. He is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval War Memorial