WARD, Frank Clifford

1914 - 1998

Frank Clifford Ward was born at Stradbroke, Suffolk on 5 March 1914, fourth of the nine children of George Rowell Ward (23 December 1884-1 October 1942), an elder of the local Baptist chapel and the local grocer, and his wife Daisy Marian Miller Carter (21 February 1885-2 July 1986), second daughter of Henry John Carter, who married at Halesworth Church, Suffolk on 1 October 1907, Frank's sister was Enid Wheeler. His parents were sympathetic when he wanted to be an artist and his father took him to see William Oliphant Hutchison, who had a house in the nearby village of Letheringham. Hutchison encouraged Frank to continue as an artist and, having won an East Suffolk scholarship, attended the Ipswich School of Art 1931-1933 under the tuition of Archibald Ward, Alan Waddington Bellis and Leonard Squirrell and, proving an outstanding student, then studied at the Royal College of Art 1933-1936. Frank, with fellow student at the Ipswich School of Art, Kathleen Irene Walne, would take day trips to London on the Grey-Green coach to see exhibitions, and they married at Chelsea, London in 1938. In 1939 they were living at 23 William Road, Ashford, Kent and in the same year Frank joined the staff of Wilson's School, Camberwell, a boy's grammar school. Frank Ward was a portrait draughtsman and painter but a reluctant exhibitor, who lacked the career promotion of a single gallery. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, the New English Art Club; Cooling Galleries and Chenil Galleries and latterly, with his wife, at Compendium 2 Gallery and in Brighton. He also exhibited at the Ipswich Art Club in 1943, an oil 'Repose' and a pastel 'Duty Done, Heads of Soldier's' and in 1944 two oils, 'Resting' and 'Italian Town 1944'. In 1952, the 'Daily Telegraph' critic Thomas Wade Earp (1892-1958) singled out Ward's Family Group from 350 exhibits at the Chenil Gallery 'Artists of Chelsea' show, for its 'fine plastic qualities'. His wife artist Kathleen Walne moved from Ipswich and worked in the Wertheim Gallery, living with Mrs Lucy Wertheim who, in 1935, gave her own show, and the Ward's remained friends with Lucy, nursing her in her final years. Frank Clifford Ward died at Brighton, East Sussex on 13 October 1998. Frank and Kathleen had one son and two daughters. The Imperial War Museum holds some of his wartime sketches, purchased by the War Artists' Advisory Committee when he was in Italy. One of the best is of Winston Churchill with Brigadier Julian St Clair Holbrook.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 11 Chenil Studios, King's Road, London
1949 436 King's Road, Chelsea

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Works by This Artist