IMPORTANT POST

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 718, 18 July 1929, Page 10

IMPORTANT POST

PUBLIC TRUSTEE JOINS GUARDIAN TRUST APPOINTED GENERAL MANAGER A distinct loss to the civil service will be occasioned by the appointment of Mr. R. F. Ward, district public trustee at Auckland, as manager of the Guardian Trust branch of the South British Insurance Company,

Owing to the expanding' activities of the South British Insurance Company, Limited, and the Guardian Trust and Executors Company of New Zealand, Limited, the directors have decided on an important administrative rearrangement at the head office in Auckland.

At present Mr. J. M. Stokes, manager of the Guardian Trust, also acts as secretary of the South British Insurance Company, but with the big expansion of business during the past few years the position has now arisen when it is deemed advisable that the whole of his time should be devoted to the responsible post of secretary of the South British.

When Mr. Stokes came to Auckland from Australia in 1916 to take up his appointment, the business handled was of comparatively small proportions. Today the concern administers assets worth £5,000,000, rapid expansion being experienced during the 13 years of Mr. Stokes’s management.

Mr. Ward, who is 3S years of age, was born at Auckland and educated at the Auckland Grammar School, Auckland University College, and subsequently at Victoria College, Wellington. In 1908 he joined the Lands and Survey Department, remaining in that department until 1914 when, having qualified as a solicitor the previous year, he was transferred to the Public Trust Office as a solicitor in its legal branch. After two years’ service overseas with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, he was appointed district solicitor to the Public Trust Office in Auckland, and nine months later became assistant-district public trustee in the local office. He received his appointment as district public trustee in 1921.

During his 21 years of civil service, Mr. Ward has gained a well-deserved reputation for a high standard of business integrity and unfailing* courtesy. Mr. Ward is a keen yachtsman, a member of the committee of the Maungakiekie Golf Club, and for the past five years a member of the council of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. He will assume his new duties shortly.