Obituary

Don Ward, the founder of D H Ward (Shipping) Ltd, passed away on 20th January, aged 79. He is survived by his wife, two children and five grandchildren.

His introduction to shipping and transport started during his time in the Army, when he served in the Movement Control Division of the Royal Engineers in the early nineteen fifties, prior to taking up a transport management position with Rugby Portland Cement.

After spells as traffic and transport manager with leading manufacturers BTH and Webster and Bennett, in 1960 he joined the freight division of the Townsend group as General Manager.   Some five years later when Townsend Car Ferries decided to concentrate on the car ferry business, and focus their attention to freight on cross-channel RO/RO activities, Don Ward constructed a management buy out of the Midlands-based freight forwarding division.   Hence 1965 saw the launch of D H Ward (Shipping) Ltd, which under Don Ward’s leadership expanded into full service air and ocean forwarding, export case-making and packing and customs brokerage.   A complementary travel business, Wards Travel, soon followed and quickly grew to several branches in and around the Midlands.

Mr Ward was the Chairman of the West Midlands branch of the Institute of Export, and founder Chairman of the Coventry and South Midlands branch.  He was also a co-founder of the UK Air Cargo Club, and played a key consultative role in the development of Birmingham Airport.

Mr Ward retired in 1994 when D H Ward (Shipping) Ltd was acquired by American-owned Fritz Companies, which in turn was acquired by UPS Supply Chain Solutions in 2001.

Published: 28/01/2010