George Anderson Ballingall

Winner of the club championship in 1897.

G. A. Ballingall

By Brian Denman

Chris Ravilious came across a tome entitled ‘Sussex in the Twentieth Century’ published in 1910, which had a section on Dr Ballingall. He was born George Anderson Ballingall in Bombay on October 24th 1860. His father came from Altamont, Blairgowrie, Scotland, and he himself was educated at Edinburgh University and later St George’s Hospital, London. He obtained the M.A. and M.D. qualifications and became a physician and surgeon.

In 1881 we find him playing for the East of Scotland in a match against the West of Scotland. About ten years later he joined the Hastings CC and in the 1891-92 season he took a board for the club in its correspondence match against the Cheltenham CC. In April 1892 he made his county debut. In October 1893, when Isidor Gunsberg gave a 24 board simultaneous at the Hastings CC, Ballingall was the only player to beat him. In about 1894 Ballingall became listed as a ‘first-class’ Sussex player. He won the Hastings CC Championship in 1897 and was a member of the club until at least 1906. I am not sure what happened to him after that, although the volume listed at the start of this article suggests that he was still living in Hastings in 1910.