Joseph Ball

Sir George Joseph Ball, KBE (1885–1961) was a British barrister, intelligence officer, political administrator, political operator, government administrator, and industrialist. Early years George Joseph Ball was originally trained as a barrister. MI5 As Major Joseph Ball, he was recruited into MI5 in 1915, shortly after the outbreak of World War I. He served in key operational roles with MI5 until 1927, and was believed to have played a significant role in the creation of the forged Zinoviev Letter in 1924, an episode which quickly led to the defeat of the British Labour Party government headed by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald. Conservative Party administrator Ball was a 'fervent political supporter' of the Conservative Party. From his work with MI5, Ball came to the attention of British Conservative Party leadership, and was hired out of MI5 in 1927 to run the Propaganda Department at Conservative Party Central Office. In 1930, he moved to head the Conservative Research Department, staying in that role until 1939, when World War II began. Among the young people associated with him during the 1930s were numbered Guy Burgess and Graham Russell Mitchell. Ball's group infiltrated the British Labour Party.