By 1906 Ambrose had been admitted to one of the many National Schools which had been established in the 1800's in order give children of the poor a basic education and a good religious and moral upbringing. Ambrose was entered into the register on 8 January 1906 along with his brother Albert and also a girl named Rose Ball who appears to have been born a year after Ambrose but is not listed on the 1901 census as being part of his immediate family.
Following his schooling Ambrose joins the army and at the time of the 1911 census he is listed as a Private in the Wilstshire Regiment residing at Le Marchant Barracks in Devizes. Army life mustn't have suited Ambrose as four years later he joins the Royal Navy on 14 July 1914. He is given the Service Number K23001 and is a Stoker.
Ambrose spends his first five months of his time in the navy at the shore based training establishment Vivid II he joins HMS Gloucester on 5 December 1914. Gloucester was a Town Class Light Cruiser launched at the end of 1909 and was involved in the war at sea from a very early stage being involved in the hunt for the German Cruisers SMS Groeben and Breslau in August 1914.
HMS Gloucester Town Class Light Cruiser
In February 1915 Gloucester was reassigned to 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet. Ambrose serves with Gloucester until 8 January 1916 when he returns to Vivid II for three months. He was initially rated as Stoker 2nd Class but during his tie on Gloucester he is rated as Stoker 1st Class. His conduct and character is described as Very Good since he joined the navy.
On 7 April 1916 Ambrose joins the brand new destroyer HMS Nomad. Launched in February of 1916 she was only completed in April as Ambrose joins her Nomad was one of 85 Admiralty M-class destroyers ordered during the war. Nomad was commissioned and assigned to the 13th Destroyer Flotilla of the Grand Fleet her captain was Lieutenant- Commander Paul Whitfield.
HMS Shark another Admiralty M-class destroyer Nomad would have appeared near identical
On 31 May 1916 HMS Nomad was serving with the Battlecruiser Fleet as part of the 2nd Division of the 13th Destroyer Flotilla. Of the four destroyers in the 2nd Division two would be sunk in the coming battle and the captain of HMS Nestor, Edward Bingham, would win a Victoria Cross.
At 16.09 on 31 May 1916 Admiral Jellicoe ordered the destroyers of the Grand Fleet to launch a torpedo attack against the German Battlecruisers. At the same moment the commander of the German Scouting Forces ordered a similar attack by his German Torpedo Boats. The British destroyers were led by HMS Nestor with Nomad following closely behind. There followed a running fight between the two forces which saw HMS Nomad disabled by a direct hit on her engine room. A letter written by Lieutenant Commander Paul Whitfield on 8 June:
"Our misfortune lay in getting a shell from one of their Light Cruisers clean through a Main Steam pipe, killing instantly the Engineer officer and I think a Leading Stoker. At the same time from two boilers came the report that they could not get water."
Whitfield continues
"The ship finally stopped, though steam continued to pour from the Engine Room. With the ship stopped bad luck had it that the only gun that would bear was the after one and that couldn't be fought owing to he steam from the ER obliterating everything."
Lieutenant Commander Whitfield noticed that Nomad had taken a list to port and that they were in all probability going to sink so rather than let the torpedoes sink with his ship and go to waste he decided to fire them all off at the enemy battleships he could see to his starboard.
HMS Nestor had also been badly damaged in the fighting and she too was stationary nearby. As the other British destroyers retreated Nomad and Nestor were left in full view of the approaching German Battlecruisers. Nomad was slightly closer to the enemy and was fired upon by no less than four German battleships: Friedrich der Grosse, Prinzregent Luitpold, Kaiser and Kaiserin after several hits from their smaller guns causing a massive amount of damage to the stricken destroyer the crew of Nomad abandoned ship. Whitfield describes the scene:
"Salvo after salvo shook us and wounded a few. The ship sinking fast I gave the order to abandon her and pull clear and about 3 minutes after she went down vertically by the stern"
Once Nomad had been sunk the Germans fired on Nestor sinking her too. Eight of Nomad's crew had been killed in the battle with the remaining 72 being picked up by three German Torpedo Boats which also rescued Nestor's crew.
A newspaper reporting Nomad's crew being held in captivity
Ambrose William Ball was amongst those picked up by the Germans. He was held as a Prisoner of War in Germany until the end of the war. He was appears to have been released on 14 November 1918 but did not return to Vivid II until 1 February 1919.
Ambrose Ball was medically discharged on 14 January 1920 with "Neurasthenia" which is a term used to describe general fatigue, depression and exhaustion of the nerves. It is believed he died in Portsmouth Hampshire in 1982.
For his service during the First World War he was awarded the following medals:
1914/15 Star
British War Medal
Allied Victory Medal
Ambrose William Ball's 1914/15 Star
