Tribute has been paid to a respectful and kind councillor in Bracknell who had decades of public service under his belt.
Tributes have been paid to Alan Ward, a respected Bracknell councillor who devoted decades to local public service.
Mr Ward, 91, died on Thursday 27 November.
He was first elected in 1979 as a Conservative councillor for College Town in Sandhurst – the same day Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister – and served a total of 36 years before stepping down at the May 2015 local elections.
While travelling in Vietnam he was told about his deselection that year. He said: “I am in Saigon, Vietnam, and I am on my way to visit a son in Australia.”
Speaking from the same room in Saigon where Graham Greene wrote The Quiet American, he added: “This inspires me to write a book called ‘Eighty Years a Tory’.”
He was married to Pauline Helliar-Symons, a Conservative councillor who served on Wokingham Borough Council for 42 years from 1982 to 2024, when she stepped down.
Mr Ward published his memoir Not a Single Excuse in 2012, combining family history, reflections on his childhood and an insider’s view of grassroots politics in Berkshire.
He was elected to the former Bracknell Forest District Council and, after local government reorganisation, to the unitary Bracknell Forest Borough Council in 1998. He held several senior roles, including leader of the council from 1984 to 1992, and served on the executive in roles such as executive member for education and libraries, executive member for finance, executive member for transformation and finance, vice-chairman of the executive, and chair of governance and audit.
Mr Ward was Deputy Mayor of Bracknell Forest Borough Council from 1992 for two years and became Mayor in 1994. His chosen charities that year were the Sandhurst Day Centre and the Leisure Aid Foundation. He also served on Sandhurst Town Council.
Councillor Mary Temperton (Labour, Great Hollands), leader of Bracknell Forest Council, said: “Alan Ward was a long-standing councillor who worked hard for his community and the borough as a whole. “He was the executive member for finance when I was on the council as the lone opposition member. “He would go out of his way to patiently explain the whole of the council’s budget with me, to ensure I understood it all. “Alan was someone that always treated people with respect and kindness.”
Not a Single Excuse is available for purchase on Amazon.
James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter
