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Flight Commander Captain Albert Ball
(1897 - 1917)
Flight Commander Captain Albert Ball - VC, DSO, MC, 2 Bars, Croix de Guerre, Légion d’Honneur, Order of St. George for Russia, and Honorary Freeman of the City of Nottingham - was a First World War national hero.
Ball was Britain’s first Flying Ace and received the first VC to be awarded to a pilot of the Royal Flying Corps; it was awarded posthumously.
Albert Ball is credited with shooting down 43 German planes and one balloon in just 15 months. Whilst this is a conservative estimate, it remained an unbroken record in World War One.
Sadly, Albert Ball died in 1917, aged just 20 years old. He was reputedly shot down by Lother Von Richtofen, the brother of the infamous German Flying Ace, the Red Baron. According to a witness who saw the crash, Albert was pulled from the wreckage of his plane and died minutes later in the arms of a young French girl.
When Ball arrived at Trent in 1911, aged 14, he was described as a ‘nervy’ boy but he very soon became a young man of great courage, ‘an idealist who lived up to his ideal’ (General Charlton DSO). Ball himself is said to have credited his education at Trent with nurturing his confidence and ability to make decisions.
In May 1992, both the BBC and Central TV News commemorated this distinguished and brave Old Trident.
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