Ball, V. (Valentine), 1843-1895

Valentine Ball was born on July 14, 1843, in Dublin, Ireland.

He was an Irish geologist who graduated from the University of Dublin (B.A., 1864; M.A., 1872 and LL.D., 1889). In 1864, Ball joined the Geological Survey of India, working under Thomas Oldham. His task was to survey coalfields and other minerals of economic value, and he discovered several coalfields in West Bengal and central India. He became a Fellow of Calcutta University in 1875 and advised on the alignment of a proposed railway line between Bombay and Calcutta due to his expertise in central India. In 1873, he visited Narcondam Island along with James Wood-Mason. He was elected Fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1874. Upon returning to Ireland in 1881, he became a Professor of Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Dublin. In 1883, he became director of the Dublin Science and Art Museum, now the National Museum of Ireland. Additionally, he served as the president of the Royal Geological Society (1882-1883) and the honorary secretary of the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1882. Ball oversaw the completion of the new museum complex on Kildare Street and produced the first guide to the building. He also contributed to studies in ornithology and anthropology and arranged for his collections of Irish antiquities and Polynesian artifacts to be deposited in the new museum. Due to ill health, Ball resigned from the directorship of the museum in 1895. He was known for his regular contributions to Stray Feathers, the ornithological journal founded by Allan Octavian Hume, and the Andaman scops owl (Otus balli) was named after him by Hume. Ball authored several notable works, including "Jungle-Life in India" (1880), "The Diamonds, Coal, and Gold of India" (1881), and "The Economic Geology of India" (1881), in addition to numerous journal notes.

In 1879, he married Mary Moore. He died on June 15, 1895, in Dublin, Ireland.