there was. In 1913 the company sold 1900 barrels and close
to 41, 000 bottles of beer. That year had several notable
happenings. The brewery, according to the Suffolk Free
Press  ‘eclipsed  all  records’  by  being  awarded  the
championship gold medal, the most valuable in show, for
their Imperial Pale Ale in Cask. They were also awarded a
silver medal for their oat malt stout. It was the largest
brewing exhibition the country had seen with over 440
exhibitors.

age, his future seemed golden. He was active in village life,
hosting entertainments and sports, where he excelled at
cricket.

 The donation of a recreation ground in the village by
Reverend Kendrick Foster (nephew to John and Elizabeth)
meant that a guarded form of battle against local villages
was maintained following the formation of cricket and
football teams. Bernard was a frequent captain of Foxearth
Singles versus Foxearth Married. The singles usually won
by many runs, no doubt boosted by their greater virility.

The beer was now suitably advertised as the ‘National
Beverage’ and the firm began to diversify into selling wines
and spirits. Ward’s also brewed their first and only branded
beer called Quilter.30Though it sold a respectable 279
barrels, and was made without added sugar, its popularity
flagged and was subsequently dropped from Ward’s range,
sadly never to make a re-appearance.

A particularly affectionate tribute was paid to him at his
coming of age party. This, the Suffolk Free Press of 1913
tells us included ‘a sumptuous repast which took place in
the newly erected bottling plant and was followed by the
presentation of a gold watch’

The brewery‘s future in the hands of the family looked
unequivocal with an heir waiting eagerly in the wings.
George Bernard Ward was born in 1891 and by 1914 was
already working for his father after finishing his education
first at Malvern and then graduating to Queen’s College at
the University of Birmingham where he was studying
brewing science.

Photographs show Bernard as a tall, athletic young man
with impressive looks - very much the scion of an English
middle class family with a practical and pragmatic side to
his nature.

In the firm's old brewing journals, in some of which he
caricatured his father, Bernard comes over as a sober
reminder to the gifted that it is not so much the possession
of a talent which is remarkable, as the ability to channel it.
He was a social arbiter and like so many of his distracted

 From the Latin word ‘cuilte’ meaning ‘mattress or cushion’.
David Ward had earlier trained as an upholsterer. The name is
possibly a genuflection to his former trade.