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David Balls

Company: Butchers

Position: Freeman

Admitted: 9 May 2022

David, now 74, first sat as a Justice of the Peace in Durham City in 1988 and was at one time deputy chairman. He left the bench in 2018 with extensive experience in adult, youth, family and licensing courts.

He attended Wolsingham Grammar School and started working life as an apprentice electrician with what was then the North Eastern Electricity Board on Framwellgate Waterside, retiring on medical advice after 40 years.

He and his wife Kathleen, who married in 1970, both come from the west of the county and now live on the northern outskirts of Durham City. Among their shared interests was service with the Royal Observer Corps, headquartered in the city. When the ROC was wound up in 1991 David was a senior NCO, having completed 21 years. He remains chairman of the corps’ 23 Group Association which meets on a monthly basis.

In his retirement he has chaired the Fire Brigade Standards Committee and has undertaken similar roles with the county council and the police authority, as well membership of the county’s education appeals committee.

David lists his interests as travel and cooking and applied to become a freemen when a colleague pointed out his city apprenticeship qualified him for membership.

Contacts View all
Alan Metcalf
Alan Metcalf
Chairman of the Wardens, Secretary of the Charitable Trust & Deputy Warden Barbers' Company
Eric Bulmer
Eric Bulmer
Chairman of the Charitable Trust and Membership Secretary
Patrick Conway  OBE
Patrick Conway OBE
Chairman of the Trustees