Nancy Ball was born in 1922 in Birkenhead, the daughter of Thomas Cleator Ball, engineer, and Nina Ellen Threlfall. Educated at Southport Girls' High School, she came to Girton in 1941 to study History. She then attended the Cambridge Training College, 1944-45, where she gained the Cambridge Teachers’ Certificate. Nancy went on to a lifelong teaching career, beginning at Hulme Girls’ Grammar School, Oldham, in 1945. Her subsequent teaching appointments included Derby Training College, Tividale Comprehensive School, Tipton, and World’s End Primary School, Birmingham. She also lectured in Education at Bingley Training College and became Principal Lecturer in Education at Crewe and Alsager College of Higher Education. She maintained her own studies, receiving a Diploma in Education from the University of London in 1956, an MA from the University of Birmingham in 1961 and a PhD in Educational History from the University of Keele in 1971. She published two books (as well as articles) on 19th century elementary school education. Besides her work, she was an enthusiastic birdwatcher, a solitary walker in the Lake District and an Anglican churchgoer. Nancy Ball retired to Nantwich in 1977 and later moved to Richmond. She died in 2013. [Notes drawn from Girton College Register Volume I, an obituary in the Girton Review 2012-13, and information supplied by Joan Miller.]