A Good Series of Awards to Members of the S.A.S.

The extremely rare Northern Ireland M.B.E., M.C. group of four awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel J. A. “Tony” Ball, C.O. of The Sultan of Oman’s Special Force, late King’s Own Scottish Borderers, the Parachute Regiment and the Special Air Service Regiment

The Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Military), type 2, the reverse of the crown suspension inscribed ‘J.A.B.’; Military Cross, E.II.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1973’ and additionally inscribed ‘Capt. J. A. Ball (489891) K.O.S.B.’; General Service 1962, 3 clasps, Borneo, South Arabia, Northern Ireland, with M.I.D. oak leaf (23854005 Tpr. J. A. Ball, S.A.S.); U.N. Cyprus, privately named on the reverse, mounted as worn, very fine or better (4) £12,000-15,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Good Series of Awards to Members of the S.A.S..

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Ex Sotheby’s, 2 July 1987 (Lot 520) and Dix Noonan Webb, 25 March 1997 (Lot 601).

M.B.E. London Gazette 15 April 1980: ‘In recognition of distinguished service in Northern Ireland during the period 1 August 1979 to 31 October 1979.’

M.C. London Gazette 20 February 1973: ‘In recognition of distinguished service in Northern Ireland during the period 1 May 1972 to 31 July 1972.’

M.I.D. London Gazette 30 September 1975: ‘In recognition of distinguished service in Northern Ireland during the period 1 February 1975 to 30 April 1975.’

Julian Anthony “Tony” Ball served as a Trooper in the S.A.S. in Borneo and subsequently for one tour in Northern Ireland. Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant into the King’s Own Scottish Borderers in 1970, he won the Military Cross with them in Northern Ireland, while serving with the Reconnaissance Platoon - according to various cuttings sold with the Lot, the M.C. was awarded in respect of a series of incidents with gunmen on the streets of Belfast.

Ball was subsequently selected to serve with 14 Intelligence Company in 1974, and, now a Captain, commanded 3 Brigade Detachment of that Company in Northern Ireland, with Lieutenant Robert Nairac (later awarded the posthumous George Cross) as his second in command. His work as commander of the small undercover S.A.S. team, stationed at Castledillon, is both controversial and shrouded in mystery. Several recent publications and television programmes have exposed details of various “dirty tricks” operations allegedly carried out by Ball and Nairac, not least the assassination of a prominent I.R.A. commander in January 1975 : apparently they drove over the border, awaited his return to his farmhouse, and then burst in and emptied the contents of their pistols into him. The same source also alleges that on another occasion Ball “snatched” an I.R.A. man at gunpoint in the Republic, and brought him back to the North for trial.

Whatever the truth behind this period of Ball’s career in Northern Ireland, he was awarded a ‘mention’ and the M.B.E.

Resigning his commission in the British Army in 1980 to take up an appointment as Commanding Officer of the Sultan of Oman’s Special Force, in the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, Ball was killed in Oman on 2 May 1981, when his Range Rover overturned en-route to Thumrait, an Air Force Base in Dhofar. For these tragically short-lived services, Ball won entitlement to the Omani Peace Medal with an actice service clasp for ‘Dhofar’.

On his death a fellow officer wrote of “Tony” Ball:

‘These words are obviously one man’s opinion of a fellow officer and soldier. Tony was a slim, thin faced individual who had an excess of nervous energy. He constantly smoked Capstan Plain cigarettes and this was almost his trademark. He was awarded his M.C. with, I think, the K.O.S.B. while working in Ulster as a Battalion officer. I first met Tony when I joined 22 S.A.S. and he was on the staff of the Counter Revolutionary Warfare (C.R.W.) Wing. We worked together training personnel for the Army Surveillance Organisation which operated under cover in Ulster. He had an affinity with this sort of work. When Harold Wilson directed 22 S.A.S. to send personnel to Ulster in 1976, Tony commanded the first small element. This was a particularly trying time for the S.A.S. because of the animosity from the Regular Army, who saw Ulster as their domain, and the lack of support from people within the S.A.S. Group itself, elements of which were petrified that we would start shooting everything and everybody. During this first tour, Tony lived in a small room in Bess Brook Mill (The Submarine) with another officer who will tell of being kept awake by Tony’s regular nightmares. The success of this small group first deployed by 22 S.A.S. was directly attributable to Tony Ball’s direct and aggressive leadership. He was not afraid of authority and would frequently bend the rules if he thought it necessary.

Tony returned to Ulster later to work in the headquarters at Lisburn where he was responsible for co-ordinating the operations of the numerous police, military and government surveillance organisations working there. As you can imagine, there was a great deal of information coming in about terrorist organisations and this had to be converted into intelligence so that “executive” elements could be suitably targeted. The recent S.A.S. success against the I.R.A. in Loughall was an example of this type of co-ordination. Tony did not feel he had a future in the British Army, he always felt that his N.C.O. background was held against him, and so he left and joined the Sultan’s Special Forces. He had just started making his mark there when he met his death. He was driving Andrew Nightingale, the stand-in C.O., to the airport and they took a bend too fast or had a puncture and the Range Rover rolled killing them both. I do not think Tony was totally happy within himself and this was conveyed in his hyperactive, almost nervous, dispositions, nevertheless he was a good man to work with and could always be relied upon in a tight situation. A man to go to war with!’

The lot is sold with a number of copied photographs and newspaper cuttings, together with a letter from the 2 I.C. Sultan’s Special Force, who served with Ball in the S.A.S.