Assay Office mourns the passing of former assay master
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During his 15 years as Assay Office figurehead, Ward encouraged progress through expansion and exemplary customer service and positioned Birmingham as the largest assay office in the UK.
Born into a working class family in Sheffield, Ward lost his father during World War II and was left in the care of his grandparents when his mother remarried.
“I grew up in very humble circumstances. When my grandmother died my grandfather and I shared the work between us. It wasn’t something I thought much of, it was just the way things were,” Ward once said.
“I passed the test for grammar school, but turned it down. I knew my grandfather couldn’t afford it and to save him the embarrassment I said that I wasn’t interested in going. Since then I have worked really hard to get what I wanted, because I knew that nothing would be handed to me on a plate.”
Ward’s flair and natural talent for chemistry and physics saw him land a job at the Sheffield Smelting Company and attend night classes in order to qualify for university.
It was at this time that Ward also played professional football for Sheffield Wednesday and Peterborough United. He would spend his wages on getting his education in preparation for life after the game.
27 years after starting as a laboratory assistant, Ward was appointed managing director of Sheffield Smelting. When the American parent-company decided to pull out of the smelting business in 1983, Ward convinced them to let him sell the business rather than close it down.
That very year Ward moved down to Birmingham to assume his position at the city’s Assay Office, where he would remain until Christmas 1998. He received his OBE at Buckingham Palace on 20 May 1999 – his 65th birthday.
“Bernard Ward will be fondly remembered for many, many years to come not only by his colleagues and friends at the Birmingham Assay Office but by the whole of the UK jewellery and precious metals industries,” said current assay master Michael Allchin.
“He was an exceptional man who truly stamped his mark on the UK jewellery industry.”
Ward himself once said: “Looking back at my life, I must say, I have no regrets. There have been bad times, but I have been very fortunate throughout in my working life and in my marriage.”
Bernard Ward’s funeral takes place at 11am on Saturday 23 March at Hutcliffe Wood Crematorium in Sheffield.
