William Macmahon Ball

Australian academic and diplomat (1901–1986)

Iris Shield

(m. 1924; died 1926)

Muriel Katrine Sandys Cliffe Anderson

(m. 1928)

William Macmahon Ball, AC (29 August 1901 – 26 December 1986) was an Australian academic and diplomat. Born in Casterton, Victoria, he was educated at Caulfield Grammar School and the University of Melbourne, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree, Ball studied both psychology and political science as a research fellow at Melbourne and the London School of Economics respectively.^[1] He then travelled Europe as a Carnegie Travelling Fellow, and during the Munich crisis was the first foreigner allowed to visit Sachsenhausen concentration camp in several years.

He was a notable diplomat, working as an advisor to the Australian delegation at the San Francisco conference of the United Nations in 1945, Australian Minister to Japan, and British Commonwealth representative to the Allied Conference.

He later became a professor of political science at Melbourne University, and was a regular broadcaster on both the ABC and BBC. He was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1978 "for service to education and learning particularly in field of political science".^[2]

References

^ Ryan, Peter, "Ball, William Macmahon (1901–1986)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian National University, archived from the original on 19 January 2016
^ Australian Honours (2006). BALL, William MacMahon. Retrieved 12 June 2006.