NEWS RELEASE from the Liberal Democrats on Harlow District Council

Liberal Democrat councillors and campaigners in Harlow were among those who gathered at Harlow Crematorium on Tuesday 8 February 2000 to attend the funeral of Stan Ward.

Stan, who died on 25 January 2000 aged 73, had been a campaigner all his life.

During the war he was one of Montgomery’s ‘Desert Rats’, fighting in North Africa and Europe. The army taught him to drive tanks and to cook. Born in Tottenham, he moved to Hackney, then in 1967 to Harlow, where he worked for Key Glass before becoming a bus driver.

Though he was candidate for council elections more times than anyone else in Harlow, he was never elected to public office. However, he helped secure the election of many Liberals and Liberal Democrats over the years, including the ‘breakthrough’ in Stewards in 1973, a ward that remains solidly Liberal Democrat to this day. Prior to June 1973, Harlow Council had been 100% Labour. Stan was a Vice President of Harlow Liberal Democrats, and represented the party at many Liberal Democrat federal conferences.

As a result of his campaigns (and his bus driving), he got to know all parts of Harlow and its surrounding villages, and was known and liked in return by people from all over the area.

Stan was an idealist, and unswerving in his beliefs. His interests included the environment, nursery education and public transport, and he was also a school governor in Harlow for a number of years. In recent years he campaigned for pensioners. Stan was a great believer in the power of the press, and used to write many letters to the local papers.

Stan leaves a widow (Sheila), children and grandchildren.

ENDS

Note to editors: see poem on following page.

Stanley Bernard Ward

The following poem, by Stan Ward, was read at his funeral. It is believed to have been written soon after the Second World War, and was published in 1998 in an anthology by The Poets’ Guild.

A Poet’s Dream

by S B Ward

Oft when alone I’ve wondered

If ever I would see

A world of peace and happiness

Where all people would be free.

A world in which no man

Be he rich or be he poor

Would never have to dwell

In the constant fear of war.

No matter what their colour

Their race or their creed

'Tis the privilege of all God’s people

To worship as they please.

Yet when I speak to others

Of this world of which I dream

They say 'tis but another

Of those so called poet’s dreams.

The Letters Editor
FOR PUBLICATION

14 February 2000

Sir, –

The death of Stan Ward late last this month has robbed Harlow of one of its most prominent and persistent local campaigners.

Stan believed passionately in many things – nursery education, public transport and the environment were his particular concerns, but he also fought determinedly for the rights of pensioners and the disadvantaged. He was a committed member of a range of local organisations, and took an active part in local public life, although never elected to public office.

He will be a great loss to the Liberal Democrats, of whom he was a strong and dedicated supporter; to the local organisations of which he was a member; and to the town as a whole.

Yours faithfully

Councillor Lorna Spenceley
Leader, Liberal Democrat Group
Harlow District Council

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