Charles Alfred Ballance

Sir Charles Alfred Ballance (1856 to 1936) was an English surgeon who specialized in otology and neurotology. He trained at St Thomas's Hospital in London, where he was appointed aural surgeon in 1888 and later surgeon and consulting surgeon, and he was long associated with the National Hospital, Queen Square, and served as Chief Surgeon of the Metropolitan Police from 1912. During the First World War he organised and supervised military hospitals in Malta. He is remembered for pioneer work in nerve grafting and neurological surgery: he is credited with the first facial nerve to spinal accessory nerve anastomosis for facial palsy, the first operation to remove a cerebellopontine angle tumour completely, and the sectioning of the vestibulocochlear nerve as a remedy for intractable vertigo. His best known book was the 1919 Essays on the Surgery of the Temporal Bone. He became the first president of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons in 1927 and received the Lister Medal in 1933.