Robert Henry  BALL

Manager of the National Bank, Angaston, and an enthusiastic amateur photographer. In March 1894 the Observer reported: ‘We have received from Mr R.H. Ball, of Angaston, who is an amateur photographer, five excellent views giving a splendid idea of Angaston after the recent hailstorm. The photographs remind one forcibly of an English landscape in the winter season, and also bear evidence to the extensive devastation wrought by the unprecedented terrific hurricane which passed through the district.’ He was awarded a commendation for his photograph, ‘Western Punt Stage, Blanchetown’, which he entered in the Observer 1897 Christmas Supplement photographic competition.

R.H. Ball actively promoted the cause of constructing a railway from Gawler to Angaston, was a witness at the Royal Commission in 1889, and secretary of the Angaston Railway Committee. To celebrate the opening of the railway in 1911 the Barossa News published a 120-page souvenir, and of the 250 photographs reproduced, 51 were supplied by R.H. Ball. His portrait (above) appears on page 23 of the souvenir book.