Thomas William Ward (1853 – 3rd February 1926) was a scrap metal merchant and shipbreaker from Sheffield, England, most famous for the establishment of his company Thomas Ward Ltd, and its First World War-era 'employee' Lizzie the Elephant.
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Thomas William Ward was born in Sheffield, England in 1853, and began work as at the age of 15 as a coal merchant. He was soon drawn in to Sheffield's famous steel industry and became a successful scrap metal dealer in the city, helped by the great demand for the product during the early 1870s. Ward became an expert at dismantling big structures, and rose to considerable fame as a skilled shipbreaker and tradesman with his company Thomas Ward Ltd, established in 1894. He owned breakers' yards at ports around Britain, and was well known for his resourceful nature, recycling everything on the warships and redundant luxury liners given over to his care, down to lamps and carpets, and even the timber being used for garden furniture. Some of his most famous shipbreaking projects included the Majestic White Star Liner from the early 1900's, which was broken up at his yard in Morecambe in 1914, before that she was commanded for 9 years by Capt. Smith who went down with his new command - the Titanic; and the Olympic, which was finally towed to Inverkeithing.[1] Ward's shipbreakers was NOT at Morecambe's Stone Jetty - but nearby at a huge wooden jetty which was still there during WWII, though almost derelict by then. I have two sets of nickel plated cabin hooks from the Majestic which escaped Ward's re-cyclers! My Great grandfather probably piloted her up to Ward's... (Thomas Woodhouse of Poulton, Morecambe)
Thomas Ward was elected to the prestigious office of Master Cutler in 1913 and his brother Joseph became Chairman of the Scrap Advisory Committee to the Ministry of Munitions.
Ward died on 3rd February 1926 and was buried at the now defunct Wardsend Cemetery, Hillsborough, Sheffield.
After his death Thomas Ward Ltd was able to survive throughout the Second World War and was ran by Ward's family up until the early 1980s when it was bought over by an international company.
At the outbreak of World War I, 1,235 people were on the payroll of Thomas Ward's company and a thousand tons of scrap metal per day was being fed to the country's steel makers. However with demand so high, and many of the horses Ward had previously used to transport his goods around Sheffield conscripted by the military he had an increasingly difficult time to match supply with demand. Lizzie the Elephant was brought in as a solution to this problem.[2]
Lizzie the Elephant was drafted in from Sedgwick's Menagerie, a travelling circus ran by William Sedgwick (1841-1927). The elephant was said to be able to do the work of three of Ward's horses and soon got herself the name 'Tommy Ward's Elephant' as she became a familiar site carrying goods around the city, controlled by her trainer Richard Sedgwick (1875-1931) (son of the circus ringleader William Sedgwick).[3] Lizzie was said to have inspired other Sheffield firms to creative means with their wartime transportation and a company in the Wicker area of the city was said to have used camels also from Sedgwick's Menagerie in place of their own horses.
Unfortunately walking around the cobblestoned streets of Sheffield damaged Lizzie's feet, and although she continued to work for Ward's firm for sometime after the end of the first world war she was eventually returned to the circus.
Lizzie has gone down in Sheffield legend, and many stories and legends surround her, including her breaking the window of a house to get to a pie cooling on the work surface inside, eating a schoolboy's cap, and even pulling a traction engine caught in the snow free during winter. She also gave name to the popular Sheffield sayings "done up like Tommy Ward's elephant" - meaning someone carrying much weight, and the self-explanatory "like trying to shift Tommy Ward's elephant".
Lizzie has recently had a Sheffield Community Transport bus named after her. The bus is called "Lizzie Ward" and is an Optare Solo model.