13 Willow Street

Corporal John Alfred Ball

John Ball was born in 1920. He attended school in Paris and attended St. James Anglican Church. During his boyhood years he developed an interest in lacrosse and played on the Paris team. He lived at 13 Willow Street at the outbreak of the Second World War where he lived with his mother, his uncle, his wife Mabel Holmes and daughter Eileen, and a small son, also John, who his father was never to see.

When war broke out, John enlisted with the 1st Battalion, Dufferin and Haldimand Rifles in June, 1940. He received his military training in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Nanaimo, and Victoria, British Columbia. He later transferred to the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, with which he served in Europe.

Corporal John Ball had been seriously wounded in August 1944. He was hospitalized for five months in England and had just returned to the RHLI when he lost his life.  He is buried in the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, which is located 10 km southeast of the town of Nijmegen and close to the German frontier.

(Much of this information was found in the Canadian Virtual War Memorial created by Veterans Affairs Canada)