SASKATCHEWAN AND ITS PEOPLE

         
AUGUSTUS H. BALL.   
         
                      
     Augustus H. Ball has occupied the position of Deputy Minister of
Education for the province of Saskatchewan continuously since 1912,
save for the period of his service in the World war.  He was born in
London, England, on the 29th of January, 1873, a son of Ralph and
Hannah (Wilde) Ball, who spent their lives in that country. The father
served as postmaster of a London subdistrict for a number of years but
spent his last days in honorable retirement.  He was a member of the
Church of England and a Liberal in politics.  To him and his wife were
born thirteen children, nine of whom survive.
   Augustus H. Ball, who was the seventh in order of birth in the fam-
ily, obtained his early education in the Haberdashers' school of his native
city.  After emigrating to the New World he continued his studies in
Manitoba University, from which he was graduated with the degree of
Bachelor of Arts in 1895, while ten years later the same institution con-
ferred upon him the degrees of M. A. and LL. B.  Following his gradua-
tion in 1895 he began lecturing in classics at Manitoba College but in
1897 came to Saskatchewan and took up the profession of teaching near
Fort Qu'Appelle, Assiniboia. Subsequently he served as school principal
at Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, until 1901, in which year he was made
principal at Moose Jaw, this province, thus continuing until 1903. In the
latter year he was appointed inspector of schools, with headquarters at
Yorkton, Saskatchewan, and ably discharged the duties of that position
until 1911, when he was appointed assistant principal of the Regina Nor-
mal School. It was in the following year that he received appointment
as deputy Minister of Education, in which capacity he has continued and
has made a most creditable and commendable record. In October, 1916,
he enlisted for overseas service as a member of the Two Hundred and
Forty-ninth Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces, with which
he did duty until April, 1918, leaving the army with the rank of captain.
Upon his return horne in the latter year he resumed his work in the de-
partment of education.
    In 1915 the Duke of Connaught appointed Mr. Ball first provincial
commissioner of Boy Scouts, which office he filled most acceptably until
1922. He was a member of the executive committee of the Saskatchewan
Division of the Canadian Red Cross Society for several years and was
the first chairman of the Junior Red Cross committee for the relief of
crippled children. During the period of the World war he organized the
schools' patriotic fund, the Belgian Children's Relief fund and the schools'
Red Cross fund, through which organizations large sums of money were
contributed for patriotic purposes.  Mr. Ball was the secretary of the
Territorial Teachers' Association, which was organized in 1898, and
been actively connected with educational work in this province for
more than a quarter of a century.

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