1937-1938, Ernest Ball, Mayor of Wigan County Borough

To launch the Archives our project Civic Histories: Wigan Borough Mayoral Project, Peter Walker examines the life of Ernest Ball, the former errand boy who would meet the king, transform public transport in Wigan, become Deputy Lord Lieutenant of the County, Freeman and JP in Wigan and be awarded the CBE.

“I set out to do a job on behalf of the ratepayers and I hope I have kept faith with them”.[i]

I met Alderman Ernest Ball when he was the most senior man on Wigan County Borough Council and I was a mere office junior. Always courteous and supportive to his officials, no matter how lowly, he was a man respected for his ability and leadership, especially in the field of public transport. He was a man of vision who valued the contribution of his political opponents and saw unpaid ‘public service and the betterment of life generally as his occupation usually at the helm, other work his hobby’.[ii]

To those who knew him (though perhaps not to his face) he was Ernie Ball. These notes are based on the writings of those who knew and respected him and I feel that informality helps give a clearer picture of the man who the Wigan Observer described in 1972 as ‘Mr Wigan’.

Ernie Ball was born just over the Wigan boundary in Standish Lower Ground, on 14 May 1891, shortly after his twin sister Elsie, fourth child of William, a coal miner, and Martha Jane Ball.

Educated at Standish Lower Ground and Crooke Village Schools, Ernie left when he was thirteen to enter the grocery trade with the well-known Wigan firm of O&G Rushton. Later he joined the grocery department of Wigan Co-Operative Society.

On Friday 5 June 1908 Ernie’s father, William, set off to work as usual at the John Pit of the Wigan Coal and Iron Company. At some time that day an accident occurred; William was crushed and fatally injured when a huge stone fell on him. He died a few hours later. Ernie was seventeen; his widowed mother was expecting her eleventh child, James, who was born a few months later.

On 1 August 1914 Ernie married Mary Ann Kay at St Mark’s Church Newtown; they had one child, a son named Clifford.

In 1916 he joined the 2^nd Battalion of the Manchester Regiment in France as No. 1 Lewis Gunner. His section relieved the section of the late Thomas Woodcock VC in the fighting around Munchy. He was lucky to avoid a fatal German bullet.

After the First World War he joined the firm of Holland & Clough, wholesale merchants in Scholes, were he remained to become the firm’s senior traveller. His employer, Councillor John Holland, JP, was a member of Wigan Town Council.

A member of Newtown Labour Club, he became ward secretary and vice-president before standing for election in 1925 to represent Pemberton North Ward on Wigan Town Council. A position he would retain for almost fifty years.

His was interested in open air sports generally; both he and his wife were members of Gathurst Golf Club and he enjoyed bowling and gardening.

In 1927 he was elected deputy Mayor of Wigan and in 1929 became chairman of the Transport Committee, the role for which he would be best remembered and honoured.

He led the change from trams to buses, wiped out the tramways department debt from revenue and saw the service set up on a sound financial basis. On his being elected mayor in 1937 the Wigan Observer reported that it was:

‘…in large measure due to his energy, foresight and enthusiasm that the Transport Department has been lifted from a position of debt and liability to the Corporation to a most successful undertaking, successful both from the point of view of finance and service’.[iii]

When he was granted the Freedom of the Borough of Wigan in 1954 the Lancashire Evening Post reported:

‘It was Alderman Ball who drove the last electric tram to the transport depot on March, 28, 1931, an act symbolic of the victory against die-hards who still wanted electric trams to be the mainstay of the transport undertaking’.[iv]

Alderman Hancock, in moving the resolution that Alderman Ball be elected freeman, said that when he took over as chairman of transport in 1929 the transport system was a ‘chaotic conglomeration and great debt’. Trams on narrow gauges, wide gauges and trolley buses. Alderman Ball and his committee held firm to their faith in motor buses and got the resolution through the council.

Councillor Arnold Walker, in proposing the toast referred to the town’s poverty in 1925 when Alderman Ball was first elected and the prosperity enjoyed in 1954. This prosperity was in part owing to the modernisation of the transport system brought about by Alderman Ball and his Committee. The provision of cheap, reliable, transport was essential to a growing economy.

In 1937 he was elected Mayor of Wigan, choosing his employer, Councillor John Holland as his deputy.[v] His duties as Mayor included the opening of the new Cleansing Depot in Frog Lane, described as a ‘State of the Art’ recycling facility and the Ritz Cinema in Station Road when he said:

‘Only this weekend I read that 23 million patronise cinemas each week in the country. The effect of the cinema on the people can be for good. I hope that the people who visit the Ritz Cinema will not only be entertained but educated as well’.

Other duties included tree planting in schools and parks across the borough to commemorate the coronation of King George VI, hallowing of the extension to St Stephen’s Church in Whelley, and visiting local organisations were he often spoke on transport issues.

He represented the town on an official visit to the Wigan Corporation Stand at the British Industries Fair in Birmingham and met King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on their visit to Wigan as part of their tour of the northwest following the Coronation.

In 1938 with the threat of war looming in Europe there were still hopes that conflict might be avoided. A movement for peace grew and meetings were held in Wigan on the Market Square and at the Queen’s Hall. In April 1938 a ‘Peace Week’ was organised in Wigan and the Mayor invited people to attend a united service on the Market Square. Addressing the crowd he said that:

‘The world’s greatest need today is peace, and the attainment of peace should be the first concern of every responsible citizen. Wars, and threats of war fill our days with anxiousness, and it is only too obvious that we must find a way to peace or civilisation will crash’.[vi]

In October 1938 he launched an appeal to help refugees from Czechoslovakia. Despite the fears of war and his official duties the Mayor also found time to lead a team of councillors and officials in a bowls match against a team captained by the mayor of Southport at the Bellingham, the home of Wigan Bowling Green, in Wigan Lane. In memory of a happy occasion the Wigan team presented him with a gold wrist watch.

In 1942 Ernie was elected Alderman,[vii] and in 1948 elected Chairman of the Municipal Passenger Transport Association Area ‘C’. This area comprised the thirty four municipal transport undertakings, over a third of the municipal transport bodies in the country.[viii]

In 1954 he was made a freeman, the highest civic honour the town could bestow;[ix] yet, more honours awaited him. In 1959 he was awarded Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for political and public services,[x] and in 1968 he was appointed Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire. The Lancashire Evening Post reported that:

‘No one has given greater service or more of his leisure time towards the betterment of Wigan than Alderman Ball.’[xi]

During almost fifty years service he served on all the Council committees, was chairman of Transport, Deputy Chairman of Finance, Chairman of the Borough Boundaries committees and leader of the Labour Group. Further afield he was vice-chairman of Makerfield Water Board, Chairman of the Post Office Advisory Committee for Wigan Council and a magistrate. An acknowledged expert in Public Transport he became Deputy Traffic Commissioner for the Northwest, represented the Northwest on the Municipal Passenger Transport Association and was a member of the Highways Transport Committee of the Association of Municipal Corporations.

In the 1960s he supported the Murrayfield Scheme to redevelop the centre of Wigan; the failure of this scheme was his one disappointment in a life devoted to public service that saw most of his dreams achieved.

In the 1960s, with the 1974 re-organisation of Local Government on the horizon, Alderman Ball served as chairman of a body studying re-organisation of county boroughs in the Northwest and was vice-chairman of a conference of local authorities covering Lancashire, Cheshire and the Peak District of Derbyshire - the area that would eventually become Greater Manchester.

The new system had no place for Aldermen and imposed a seventy five year age limit on elected representatives. Alderman Ball was disappointed at having to step down from public life, being still active he felt he had a lot of experience to offer. However, he supported the need for change, recognising that it was ridiculous at his age to stand for election and keep a younger man out. He wished to go at a time of his choosing.[xii]

‘I set out to do a job on behalf of the ratepayers and hope I have kept faith with them’.

On his retirement in May 1972 he was presented with six silver goblets bearing the town’s coat of arms which he promptly gave back to the town to become part of the civic regalia.

He passed away at the age of 87 at Acton House, Scholes, a widower, his wife and son having died before him.

[i] WO 11 February 1972 – Biographical Cuttings Book 8, p. 57

[ii] LEP 6 March 1969 – Biographical Cuttings Book 7, p. 255

[iii] WO 13 November 1937 – Local Cuttings Book 6, pp. 255, 273, 274

[iv] LEP 15 & 17 December 1954 – Biographical Cuttings Book 7, pp. 1-3

[v] WO 2 Oct 1937, WO 13 Nov 1937 – Local Cuttings Book 6, pp. 255, 273, 274

[vi] WO 30 Apr 1938, WO 7 May 1938 – Local Cuttings Book 6, pp. 298-301

[vii] WE 5 Dec 1942 – Local Cuttings Book 6, p. 53

[viii] WE 7 May 1948 Local Cuttings Book 6, p. 205

[ix] WE 3 Dec 1954, LEP 15 Dec 1954 – Biographical Cuttings Book 7, pp. 1-2

[x] LEP 13 June 1959 – Biographical Cuttings Book 7, p. 83

[xi] LEP 21 May 1968, WO 24 May 1968 – Biographical Cuttings Book 7, pp. 222-223

[xii] LEP 9 July 1971, WO 11 Feb 1972, WO 10 March 1972, W0 12 May 1972, LEP 8 May 1972 – Biographical Cuttings Book 8, pp. 18, 57, 62, 69, 70