BIOGRAPHY

John Stanton Ward CBE RA (1917-2007) was brought up in Hereford in a family of antique dealers and picture restorers. At fifteen he enrolled at the Hereford School of Arts and Crafts, and later won a place at the Royal College of Art. Ward enlisted at the outbreak of the Second World War and spent six years in the Royal Engineers, including crossing to France on D-Day, during which time he sketched his fellow soldiers. After demobilization, he worked for Vogue and developed a career as an illustrator, producing adverts, posters and book illustrations.

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In the 1950s, he moved to Kent with his wife Alison and growing family, first to Folkestone and then to Bilting, which was to become his home for the next 50 years. Here, with Alison, he brought up his six children and set out as a portrait painter. Over the course of his career, he painted portraits of many eminent people and royalty, as well as family members, and developed close friendships with a number of fellow Kent artists, a group later known as the East Kent School. With these friends, he embarked on many painting tours of Italy and France where he produced architectural watercolours. Ward became painting tutor to the then Prince Charles, and in 1985 accompanied him on an official tour of Italy to record the visit. He also became deeply involved in Kent life, helping to set up Stour Music Festival with the countertenor Alfred Deller and painting a number of church murals.

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