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.

He was born Hannam Edward Bonnor in Stoke Newington, London, the youngest son of William Bonnor, a surgeon originally from Hereford, and his wife Emma. He was educated at Christ's Hospital. 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 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,

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.