The mystery of SAS Major Julian 'Tony' Ball

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There are several mysterious eminence grise figures in Robert Nairac's story: people who clearly influenced him and of whom one would like to know more. One was his SAS friend, Major Julian Ball, usually known as Tony. He was clearly a remarkable and very brave man, who deserves a biography in his own right. However he is unlikely to receive one in the near future; much of his career – even the details of his death – remains shrouded in secrecy. He is an important figure in Nairac's story but never quite comes into focus. Much that has been written about him, including in Army publications, is incorrect.

Ball first met Nairac in 1974, when they were both serving in NITAT – NI, based in Castle Dillon. Nairac regarded Ball, who was five years older than him, his immediate superior and a much more experienced soldier, as a mentor and example. Nairac might also have seen Ball as a kind of substitute for his dead brother, David. On his side, Ball was not the most relaxed of men but Nairac could make him laugh, and often did. They were in many respects complementary characters; they also had a lot in common, including energy, intelligence, integrity and courage. They became, and remained, extremely close friends. However any suggestion that they might have been in a homosexual relationship – and such suggestions have been made – is wide of the mark. Ball's former Army friends dismiss the idea as ridiculous, because he was enthusiastically heterosexual; a military Casanova, while Nairac is known to have been a devout Catholic.

Ball had been commissioned from the ranks; it might seem to follow from this that he was a tough, working-class hero, but this is not correct. Tough he certainly was, but he was also a “toff”. Ball spoke with a clear, upper-class accent. He came from a family that had been wealthy and well-connected. He had had a comparatively privileged upbringing, educated at King Edward VI School in Chelmsford and Welbeck College, the Army's sixth-form college, with a view to entering the RMA Sandhurst. During his boyhood, Ball and his parents had had the expectation of a considerable inheritance from his maternal grandfather. His hopes and plans were shattered when, early in his studies at Welbeck, Ball learned that his grandfather had died, leaving everything to a close associate and nothing to his family.

Ball was not a scholarship-holder at Welbeck. Possibly thinking that he ought to get a job immediately to help his parents, he abandoned his studies and joined the Army as a Private. Later he regretted this action; while he managed to acquire some A-Levels by private study, he never made it to university. It was while serving in the ranks that Ball, apparently deciding that his first name, Julian, sounded too “posh”, asked his fellow-soldiers to address him as Tony, from his second name, Antony. To friends of that period he remained Tony, although his family and later officer friends called him Julian.

Ball served as a Private in the Parachute Regiment and as a Trooper in 22 SAS. In 1970, aged 27, he was finally commissioned into the King's Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB), although he was not a Scot. He came to regret this decision, which had been influenced by a Sandhurst friend who was also being commissioned into the Scottish Infantry. In the KOSB Officers' Mess he experienced a culture that he disliked. As a result, he contrived to spend much of his career as an officer detached from his parent regiment, serving with the Special Forces and in other capacities. Ball, who could be outspoken and had limited patience with fools, clashed with more than one of his KOSB brother officers. One of these was the late Clive Fairweather; they detested one another. Ball is on record as referring to Fairweather as “an odious little man”.

This was to impact on Robert Nairac; his friendship with Ball was well-known, so when he encountered Fairweather in January 1977, Fairweather viewed him askance from Day 1. Fairweather later blocked Ball's attempt to return to Northern Ireland to assist the search for Nairac after he disappeared. Long after their deaths, Fairweather continued to make unpleasant and critical assertions about both Ball and Nairac.

Nairac's death had a profound impact on Ball, who missed him badly and was haunted by misgivings about the way in which he had been managed in South Armagh in 1976-77. Latterly Ball's house became a shrine to Nairac's memory. His personality altered. He concluded - rightly or wrongly - that he had no future in the British Army. He resigned his commission in order to become Commander-in-Chief of the recently-founded Sultan of Oman's Special Forces.

Ball survived Nairac by almost exactly four years; apparently, but not certainly, dying in a road traffic accident in Oman in May 1981 with another friend of Nairac's, Major Andrew Nightingale. The circumstances remain mysterious; there were no survivors and no witnesses have ever come forward. There was no inquest. Despite the fact the he was no longer working for the British Army, the SAS immediately claimed his body. The Army flew Ball's remains back to the UK and gave him a grand military funeral at Hereford, followed by burial in the SAS plot at St Martin's Church. Snipers were positioned on the church tower in case the IRA should attempt to attack the senior officers and other notables who attended the high-level event. Ball is interred under a stone bearing the badges of the KOSB and the SAS.

But this was not what Ball and his family wanted. They had envisaged a quiet ceremony for family and friends only, followed by cremation and scattering of ashes. However the arrangements were taken out of their hands and their wishes were disregarded. The reasons for this are still unknown.

Find out more about Tony Ball, and his influence on Robert Nairac in Betrayal The Murder of Robert Nairac GC. Click here for information on how to buy your copy.

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