Description: These Memorial Homes were erected in 1921 by the Ball Family in memory of their son, Captain Albert Ball, VC DSO (2 bars) MC and C de G. Captain Albert Ball was born in Nottingham in 1896 and died barely two decades later after a terrifying dice with Baron Manfred von Richthofen's 'Flying Circus'. He served with the 7th Bn The Sherwood Foresters and the Royal Flying Corps during WWI. He took off on his last mission on 6 May 1917. He and his fellow pilots were intercepted above the trenches of Cambrai and Douai by Richthofen's planes and following a fierce dogfight that saw several aircraft from both sides shot down, Albert Ball was last seen chasing a German plane into a bank of cloud. Moments later he crashed into a cornfield near Annoeullin after a spectacular death dive that experts have never fully explained. He died the next day and was buried by the Germans with full military honours. The field where he crashed was bought by his father, Sir Albert Ball, a former Lord Mayor of Nottingham. There is a memorial to him, and his personal effects can be seen at Nottingham Castle. Although he was buried in France, there is a family grave at the sout-west corner of Lenton Parish Church which gives details of his death.