User:Moswento/Albany Ward

Hannam Edward Albany Ward (6 November 1879 – 18 February 1966), known as Albany Ward, was a pioneer English theatre proprietor and cinema developer, who ran one of the largest cinema circuits in Britain in the early part of the twentieth century.

Early life
Albany Ward was born Hannam Edward Bonnor in Stoke Newington, London in 1879, the youngest son of William Bonnor, a surgeon originally from Hereford, and his wife Emma. From the age of 8, he was educated at Christ's Hospital, which was based in the City at the time. His father died while he was at school, and his widowed mother moved to Ilfracombe, Devon. Ward was a boarding student, but stayed with his mother during the school holidays.

After leaving school in 1894, Bonnor joined his mother in Ilfracombe, where he started an apprenticeship with a local construction company. In 1896, lacking enthusiasm for his building work, he elicited work as an assistant at the High Barnet firm of pioneer filmmaker Birt Acres, who he had first met during his summer holiday in 1893, when Acres was still an employee of the photographic firm Elliot and Son. By 1896, Acres had started his own company, the Northern Photographic Works, where Bonnor became involved in film production. In his personal memoirs, Bonnor described this as demanding work where he "used to start early in the morning and frequently worked on till midnight", spending many "long and weary hours in the dark room".

After leaving school he joined his widowed mother in Ilfracombe, Devon, before starting work in 1896 as an assistant to pioneer filmmaker Birt Acres in High Barnet. He then joined the Velograph Company, managed by Adolphe Langfier, as a projectionist, and began touring the country with films of such events as Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. In 1898 he formed his own company and toured Wales and the south-west of England, becoming the first moving picture exhibitor in parts of the country. He introduced offstage sound effects, such as imitations of train and battle noises, to accompany the film showings.

He opened his first theatre, the Empire Theatre in Oxford, in 1900, showing a mixture of films and variety acts. By 1901 he was referring to himself simply as Albany Ward, with no forenames, and described himself as "Theatrical manager". He established his first permanent theatre, in Weymouth, Dorset, in 1906. The town became his main base and residence. He built up one of the largest circuits of cinemas in the country, owning 29 cinemas by 1914, mostly in small towns in the west of England and south Wales. In some cases, as at Exeter, Warminster and Monmouth, he took over and refurbished existing theatres; elsewhere, as at Chepstow, he had a new theatre built. He sold his cinema and theatre chain to Provincial Cinematograph Theatres Ltd. (PCT) in 1920, while retaining management responsibilities for them as part of PCT. He formally changed his surname from Bonnor to Albany Ward by deed poll in 1922.

He married Edith Robertson in 1899. He married again in 1916, to Dorothy Hembrow; they had four children. He died in a nursing home in Torquay, Devon, in 1966 at the age of 86. He officially changed his name by deed poll in March 1922, to Hannam Edward Albany Ward.

Cinema proprieter
In 1914, it was the largest chain listed in the Kinematograph Year Book; the second largest was that of the Weisker Brothers, who owned 22 halls.

His registered office was based in Salisbury.

It was still the largest in 1917, when its head office was in Weymouth. The circuit had grown to 28 cinemas in the south-west. There were 429 known cinemas in Britain at the time.

In 1919(?), it was acquired by Provincial Cinematograph Theatres, although it was still slightly separate and "temporarily regained independence" in 1923. 1926 - had direct control of 19, out of a total of 79 PCT theatres. 27 (of 93) under Albany Ward in 1928. 26 (of 97) under Ward in 1930.

Others sources
JSTOR
 * Filming the Boer War /
 * Barnes
 * Good context