William Macmahon Ball, Air Corps was an Australian academic and diplomat.
Education
Born in Casterton, Victoria, he was educated at Caulfield Grammar School and the University of Melbourne, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree, Ball studied both psychology and political science as a research fellow at Melbourne and the London School of Economics respectively.
Career
He then travelled Europe as a Carnegie Travelling Fellow, and during the Munich crisis was the first foreigner allowed to visit Sachsenhausen concentration camp in several years. He was a notable diplomat, working as an advisor to the Australian delegation at the San Francisco conference of the United Nations in 1945, Australian Minister to Japan, and British Commonwealth representative to the Allied Conference. He later became a professor of political science at Melbourne University, and was a regular broadcaster on both the American Broadcasting Company and British Broadcasting Corporation.