THE FUNERAL of popular Bromsgrove war veteran, author and musician Peter Ward will take place at St Godwald’s Church at 9.15am tomorrow (Wednesday).
Peter, who passed away on May 29 at the age of 95, served on several continents during the Second World War, including in Africa and on board the Russian Convoys.
He also took part in the D Day Landings.
After enlisting in the Royal Navy in September 1941 he qualified as a radar operator and went on to join the Corvette ‘HMS Sweet Briar’ based in Iceland.
It patrolled the North Atlantic Ice Barrier in search of a German battleship.
Peter then spent a year at Sunk Head Fort on the sands off Harwich, alternating four weeks on the fort and two weeks ashore.
In June 1943 he joined the destroyer ‘HMS Beagle’ as a radar operator, first serving on convoy duty off the West Coast of Africa and subsequently in the North Atlantic on Russian Convoys. And he participated in the D Day Landings in June 1944.
After leaving the ‘Beagle’ he served for a year on ‘HMS Arbiter’, an escort carrier, in the Far East, helping serve the British Pacific Fleet off the coast of Japan.
He was aboard the fleet as VE and VJ day were both celebrated.
Peter received many honours for the service he gave, including the Arctic Star and the Ushakov Medal, Russia’s highest naval honour, for the role he played aboard the Russian Convoys. Last year he was also awarded France’s prestigious Legion D’Honneur for his part in the D Day Landings.
Peter wrote about many of his wartime experiences in two books which were based on diaries he kept at the time.
His first book ‘From Africa to the Arctic’, published in April 2003, recalled his life aboard the destroyer HMS Beagle between June 1943 and June 1944. It also featured information about his involvement in the Russian Convoys and the D Day Landings.
‘Pacific Voyage’, published in 2005, was based on his experiences as a crew member of HMS Arbiter, an Escort Carrier based in Sydney, Australia and a unit of the British Pacific Fleet during the year 1945. The fleet played an important role in the defeat of the Japanese.
As well as that, Peter gave talks in schools and to other groups about his wartime experiences.
Peter was born in London in February 1922.
Both his parents were musical and he was educated at Walpole Grammar School, Ealing.
During that time he learned to play the piano and violin.
After being demobbed in 1946 he worked for the Inland Revenue and then for a year in a junior school.
He became a student at Worcester Teacher Training College (now University College, Worcester) in 1947.
He undertook a very intensive one-year teaching course and, while there, met his future wife Jean Rawlings.
The pair got married in 1949 and, at the end of the course, he was offered further study at the Birmingham School of Music (1948-49) which is now the Birmingham Conservatoire. There he studied both piano and violin.
In 1949 Jean went to a Technical College in Kent for a year and Peter taught for a term at a school in Ealing before being appointed as a music specialist in a junior school in Oxford. He taught there for ten years before becoming a deputy headteacher of another primary school in Oxford.
Four years later he was appointed as a lecturer at Summerfield College, near Kidderminster, specialising in primary school music
He spent ten years there as a resident tutor and had responsibility for the orchestra and prepared students for teaching music in primary schools.
In the early 1970s Summerfield College merged with Shenstone College (later North East Worcestershire College) in Bromsgrove.
During his time at Summerfield College, Peter completed a BA Honours degree with the Open University.
In 1980 Peter, along with the then principal of the Birmingham School of Music Louis Carus, was responsible for forming what is now the Birmingham Conservatoire Association. It is a support group made up of lecturers, friends and alumni of the Birmingham Conservatoire.
Peter was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by Birmingham Conservatoire in 1996 for services to music.
Peter and Jean moved to East Road, Bromsgrove in the 1970s where they lived for the rest of their lives.
Peter retired from Shenstone College in the 1980s but continued to be active in music.
With Joyce Messenger, he helped launch the Bromsgrove Festival Young Musicians’ Platform and helped organise it for 12 years.
He was also a pianist for the Barnt Green Choral Society for 12 years and was the staff tutor for orchestral courses at Hawkwood College, Stroud, for more than 30 years.
As well as performing, teaching, adjudicating and serving on numerous committees in the field of classical music, he also served as a trustee of the ‘Friends of the Worcester Music Library’. The organisation has helped the Library acquire the best collection of Elgar’s music in the country.
Jean died in February 2012 and Peter on May 29.
They are survived by their two daughters Nicola and Susan who are both professional musicians.
Just family flowers have been requested for Peter’s funeral but friends can donate to the Birmingham Conservatoire Association at R L Rea Funeral Directors Ltd, 17 Rock Hill, Bromsgrove. B61 7LL or by calling 01527 831723.
