New Hebrides British Service, Bertram Ballard papers relating to the revision of the British Laws of the New Hebrides.

The New Hebrides British Service was established under the Anglo-French New Hebrides Convention of 1906 which provided for joint rule of the New Hebrides by France and Great Britain. It formed part of the Western Pacific High Commission with a Resident Commissioner in Port Vila reporting to the High Commissioner, until the Commission ceased in 1978. The New Hebrides was renamed Vanuatu at independence in 1980.

Bertram Charles Ballard (1903-1981) was born on 22 January 1903 at Toorak, Melbourne. He was educated at Scotch College (dux 1919-20) and at the University of Melbourne (BA, 1924; LL B, 1925; MA, 1926), where he graduated with first-class honours and the Dwight [q.v.4] prize in French. On 2 May 1927 he was admitted to practise as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria.

In August 1940 Ballard was appointed Australian official representative in New Caledonia. He was instructed to report on political and economic conditions in the French colony and to encourage its continued wartime co-operation with both the British Empire and Australia.

In 1943 he joined the fledgling Australian diplomatic service in the Department of External Affairs. After heading the department’s international co-operation section in 1944-45, he served continuously overseas for the rest of his career, holding posts in Japan, the Netherlands East Indies, France, the Soviet Union, Thailand, Israel, Ghana, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1962-65 and as ambassador to Sweden from 1966.

Although he retired in 1967, he later revised the British laws of the New Hebrides, where he was also employed as a consultant to the Department of Foreign Affairs on Australian land interests. He died on 15 July 1981 at Kew, Melbourne.

For a more detailed biography see: Lee, D. (2007) 'Ballard, Bertram Charles (1903–1981)', Australian Dictionary of Biography