Edward Bryon Ward

Mr Edward Bryon Ward was born at 383 Moseley Road, Aston, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England on 29 January 1876.

He was the son of Henry Ward (b. 1837), a grocer's assistant originally from Leicestershire, and Ann Smith (b. 1838), a milliner from Nottinghamshire, who had married in 1857.

The youngest of four children, Edward's siblings were: William Henry (b. 1859), Annie (b. 1862) and Ada (b. 1869, later Mrs Arthur Ernest Lucey).

Edward first appears on the 1881 census as a 5-year-old, his family's address at the time being 80 Lee Bank Road, Edgbaston; also present was his aged grandmother Ann Smith (b. 1799) and his father was stated to be an unemployed grocer's assistant. By the time of the 1891 census the family were living at 47 Camp (?) Hill in Bordesley, Birmingham, his parents now taking in lodgers. Edward was the only remaining child of his parents still at home and, aged 15, had already left school and was working as a shop assistant.

His father later died but when is not clear, possibly around 1900. His widowed mother went on to run a succession of a boarding houses and shows up on the 1901 census as a resident of 5 Caxton Terrace, Henley, Oxfordshire; Edward was not present and his whereabouts at the time are unknown. He was shown on numerous voyages in 1907 as a steward aboard Majestic, operating out of Liverpool; he gave his home address as 67 Oxford Street, Southampton which, in 1907, was listed on the Street Directory as William Hooper Dining Rooms. By 1912 the same address was listed as Charles Sharp's Hooper's Temperance Hotel.

On the 1911 census his mother, sister Ada and niece Constance May Lucey (b. 1896) were residents of 6 Blechynden Terrace, their boarding house; his sister Ada was described as the hotel manageress but Edward was again absent and presumably at sea. The 1912 Southampton Street directory shows Edward Ward of the Temperance Hotel, 6 Blechynden Terrace.

Ward, who was unmarried, was on board the Titanic for her delivery trip from Belfast to Southampton. When he signed-on again in Southampton on 4 April 1912 he gave his address as 6 Richmond Terrace, Southampton; this was later overwritten in red ink with 6 Blechynden Terrace in its place. His previous ship had been the Oceanic and as a bedroom steward he received monthly wages of £3, 15s.

Edward Ward died in the sinking and his body, if recovered, was never identified.

What became of his mother is not clear but it appears that she did not remain in Southampton; his sister Ada died in Paddington, London in 1948. His niece Constance died unmarried in Exeter in 1976.