Richard Ball (Australian politician), Date of Birth, Date of Death
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Australian politician
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About Richard Ball (Australian politician)
- Richard Thomas Ball (14 September 1857 – 30 October 1937) was an Australian politician. He was born in Sydney to farmer George Ball and Ann, née Hooper.
- After attending primary school at Eastern Creek, he worked for several engineering companies and as a blacksmith before purchasing Burn and Sons foundry at Goulburn in 1881.
- On 6 May 1880 he married Esther Arnold, with whom he had four children.
- He established his own company in 1885, but was bankrupted in 1894.
- Ball served on Goulburn Council from 1887 to 1894, and was mayor from 1890 to 1891.
- After being discharged from bankruptcy he moved to Albury and was involved in the building of the waterworks; he also represented Albury in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for a term from 1895 to 1898 as a Free Trade member.
- After his defeat he moved to Sydney, practising as a mechanical engineer.In 1904, Ball returned to the Legislative Assembly as the Liberal member for Corowa.
- From 1916 to 1920 he served as Secretary for Public Works and Minister for Railways.
- With the introduction of proportional representation in 1920 Ball, now a Nationalist, was elected as one of the members for Murray.
- He was Minister for Agriculture briefly from April to June 1922 before resuming his old position as Secretary for Public Works and Minister for Railways, in which he served until 1925.
- After single-member districts were re-introduced in 1927 he returned to his old seat of Corowa, and also spent the period from 1927 to 1930 as Minister for Lands.
- On 26 January 1926 he had married Lillie May Hume.
- In 1931 Ball defected to the Nationalists' coalition partner, the Country Party.
- He served in the Assembly until his death at Marrickville in 1937.
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