Harold Ball Harold Charles Ball ( 29 May 1920 – 9 February 1942 ) was an Australian rules football player for the Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League ( VFL ) , who also served with the 2 / 9 Field Ambulance , Australian Army Medical Corps . He was captured , tortured , and executed on 9 February 1942 by the Japanese , during their assault on Singapore that began on 8 January 1942 . Family . The son of George Henry Ball , an engine - driver , and Daisy Alma Ball , née Wellington , Harold was born in Mildura , on 29 May 1920 . Footballer . Recruited from Merbein as a ruckman , he worked at the MCG as a groundsman . He played his first senior VFL game for Melbourne , aged 18 , in the first ruck against Jack Dyer and Percy Bentley of Richmond at their peak , at the MCG , on Saturday 22 April 1939 ( round one ) . Ball marked and rucked well in a side that lost by 37 points to Richmond , 11 . 18 ( 84 ) to 17 . 19 ( 121 ) . He played in all of Melbourne ' s 20 VFL matches in 1939 , kicked 30 goals , received three Brownlow Medal votes , was voted best first - year player at Melbourne , and played in the second ruck for the team that won the 1939 Grand - Final by 53 points . He played in 13 of the possible 21 senior VFL games for Melbourne in 1940 . On Saturday , 21 September 1940 , in the Preliminary Final match against Essendon , which Melbourne won by 5 points , 12 . 18 ( 90 ) to 12 . 13 ( 85 ) , Ball was the resting forward pocket ruckman . However , in the third quarter , due to injuries to his team - mates , Melbourne was forced to shift Ball to full - back . At full - back , on a wet , muddy ground , Ball played what was probably the best game of his career — " Melbourne ' s best player was Ball , who had no superior on the ground " ; " Ball gave such a superlative exhibition at full back that he seems sure to be stationed there against Richmond [ on Saturday ] " — marking the greasy ball time and time again in torrential rain ( some say he took 15 marks ) , and was single - handedly responsible for Melbourne beating an Essendon team thought a certainty to win . He played his last VFL game in Melbourne ' s 1940 Grand Final team , as a back - pocket resting ruckman . He was one of the best players on the ground for the Melbourne team , which unexpectedly beat Richmond by 39 points , 15 . 17 ( 107 ) to 10 . 8 ( 68 ) . Soldier . He enlisted in the Army on 26 July 1940 ; and , perhaps , influenced by Lieutenant Colonel Jack Jones , the Melbourne ' s club medical officer , he served in the 2 / 9 Field Ambulance , Australian Army Medical Corps . He first trained as an ambulance driver in Bonegilla , NSW ; then , having embarked on 4 February 1941 , arrived in Singapore on 18 February 1941 . His unit moved to Port Dickson , where they were trained in transporting the sick and the wounded . During his time at Port Dickson , he took part in several football matches , and competed in an athletics competition where he won the high jump . Death . On 8 February 1942 , the Japanese began their assault on Singapore , with the Battle of Sarimbun Beach ; and Ball ' s unit was overwhelmed with the task of evacuating themany wounded to a dressing station known as " Hill 80 " . Ball was working from a forward dressing station , near the aerodrome at Tengah , and his team were working tirelessly collecting and transporting the wounded . On the afternoon of 9 February 1942 , conditions were such that the medical officer in charge of the dressing station ordered all of his personnel to evacuate to " Hill 80 " . Ball , along with another driver , Private William Lewis , and ambulance orderly Private Alf Woodman , and the medical officer , Captain John Park , all traveling in the same vehicle , never reached " Hill 80 " ; and , although despatch riders were sent out to locate the men , they could not be found , and all four were reported " missing " , with the hope that they were being held as prisoners of war . On 9 May 1942 , three months later , a working party of Australian prisoners of war , sent out to cut feed for the Japanese horses , found the bodies of the four men . They had all been tortured by the Japanese , before they were executed . One of the bodies had its wrists tightly bound with wire . The identity discs on the body identified the soldier as Harold Ball . Remembered . He is buried at the Kranji War Cemetery in Singapore . His name is located at panel 86 in the Commemorative Area at the Australian War Memorial . In 1946 , the Melbourne Football Club ' s best first - year player award was officially designated the " Harold Ball Memorial Trophy " in his honour .