Terry Major-Ball

Terry Major-Ball (2 July 1932Template:Spaced ndash13 March 2007) was a British columnist, banker and media personality who was the elder brother of the former British prime minister John Major. During his brother's six-year premiership, he had a brief career as a television and radio personality and newspaper columnist. Despite the media attention, he always remained loyal and discreet.

Early life

Terry Major-Ball was born in 1932, and grew up in Worcester Park, Surrey. His father, Tom Major-Ball (real name Abraham Thomas Ball), was a music hall performer and circus artiste under the name Tom Major, and combined the two surnames when he started a garden ornament business.<ref name="Telegraph">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> His mother, Gwen, Tom's second wife, was a dancer. Unlike his elder sister Pat and younger brother John, Major-Ball failed his 11 plus exam and went to Stoneleigh East Secondary Modern School.<ref name="Telegraph"/> During the Second World War, they were evacuated to Norfolk. After World War II, Major-Ball did National Service with the Royal Army Medical Corps in Germany.<ref name="Times">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Guardian">Template:Cite news</ref>

After being demobilised, Major-Ball tried, without success, to save his ailing father's business, Major's Garden Ornaments, which was finally taken over by a competitor in 1962.<ref name="Telegraph"/><ref name="Independent">Template:Cite news</ref> The family's reduced circumstances forced them to move into rented rooms in Coldharbour Lane in Brixton.<ref name="Independent"/> To supplement the family's income, Terry Major-Ball took many menial jobs. While working at Woolworths in Brixton in 1958, he met Shirley Wilson,<ref name="Telegraph"/> whom he married in 1960.<ref name="Times"/> Major-Ball later became a meter installer for South Eastern Electricity Board and a banker.<ref name="Times"/><ref name="BBC News">Template:Cite news</ref>

Brother's premiership

Terry Major-Ball first came to the spotlight in November 1990, when his brother John became Prime Minister after the Conservative leadership election. During Major's premiership his brother became a media favourite. In 1994 he published his autobiography Major Major: Memories of an Older Brother, which was ghost-written by the journalist James Hughes-Onslow. It received good reviews and Major-Ball became a regular at book launches.<ref name="Telegraph"/> It was praised as "one of the great comic books of the year" by John Wells and "exquisitely funny" by Auberon Waugh.<ref name="Guardian"/> He always remained loyal to his brother and, amongst other things, kept secret his knowledge of the affair between Major and Edwina Currie and the details of a secret half-brother.<ref name="Telegraph"/> In 1995 he appeared on Have I Got News for You and The Mrs Merton Show.

In 1993, after noting that he had only been abroad once, to Germany while on National Service, and had never stayed in a hotel, The Evening Standard arranged for him to fly first-class to New York City, where he met Liza Minnelli.<ref name="Telegraph"/><ref name="Times"/> Terry Major-Ball later went to Christchurch, New Zealand, to open a garden gnome festival. He had columns in The Daily Express, The Daily Mail and The Guardian.<ref name="Times"/> Major-Ball also made a BBC2 travel programme called A Postcard to my Brother, where he visited France, Germany and Poland.<ref name="Telegraph"/>

Later years

Following John's departure from office after the 1997 general election, Terry Major-Ball's fame dwindled. In 2003, he moved to Somerset from Croydon, London, where he spent the remaining years of his life until his death from prostate cancer on 13 March 2007 in a hospice in Chard, Somerset.<ref name="BBC News"/> His death was announced on 20 April 2007.<ref name="BBC News"/> He was survived by his wife and children.<ref name="Guardian"/>

External links

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