My Family History

Leonard Ball - the Artist

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Ezra's Tomb

These are Dad's paintings of Ezra's Tomb. He had seen the actual monument, near Basra in Mesoptamia (Iraq), during his Army service in the Great War of 1914-1918. Visit James Bell's website for a history of Ezra's Tomb.

Above: A watercolour sketch that Dad painted in the autograph book of his future wife.
It is signed "F.L. Ball", dated March 1919, and measures 5 x 4 inches.

Below: Dad's oil painting of the same subject. It is signed "F. L. Ball" and probably
also dates from 1919. Sadly, the original 18 x 12 inch oil-on-canvas painting has not
survived: only this colour photograph remains.

The second night we spent at Ezra's tomb, which is a clump of trees and a few mud houses, and beside them, just on the bank, a domed mosque and courtyard of yellow brick, with some simple but beautiful glazed brick of a dark green colour built into the walls in bands and splashes. It is the most elaborate building between Basra and Ctesiphon.