G. A. BallardAdmiral George Alexander Ballard, CB (7 March 1862 – 16 September 1948) was an officer of the Royal Navy and a historian. Ballard was the eldest son of General John Archibald Ballard (1829–1880), and his wife Joanna, the daughter of Robert Scott-Mncrieff, and was born at Malabar Hill, Bombay on 7 March 1862. He joined the Royal Navy as a sub-lieutenant, was promoted lieutenant 15 March 1884,[2] and commander 31 December 1897.[3] In February 1902 he was ordered to six months' service at the Admiralty.[4] He was further promoted captain 31 December 1903.[5] In May 1913, Ballard was appointed a naval aide-de-camp to King George V,[6] and in the King´s Birthday Honours 3 June 1913 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath.[7] The following year he was appointed rear admiral 27 August 1914.[8] He became Admiral Superintendent Malta Dockyard in September 1916.[9] After a long and active career in the Navy he retired as vice-admiral in 1921 and was advanced to the rank of admiral on the Retired List in 1924.[10] During the 1930s he contributed two extensive series of technical articles on the warships of the mid-Victorian Navy to the quarterly Mariner's Mirror, one series on the armoured vessels (which was subsequently republished in a consolidated form in his book The Black Battlefleet) and one on lesser warships. Read More Read Less