Ward Thomas
Pilot, navigator and racing driver who founded Yorkshire Television then later returned as its saviour
WARD THOMAS, who has died aged 95, was a founder and later a rescuer of Yorkshire Television, after earlier adventures as a pilot, navigator and racing driver. In 1967 Thomas was the leader of the successful bid for the new Yorkshire independent television franchise, largely carved from Granada’s eastern territory, which eventually served some 7 million viewers from the Tees to the Wash.
The station came to air in July 1968 with Thomas as managing director and a talented team of programme-makers that included Donald Baverstock (and later Paul Fox) from the BBC, Geoffrey Cox from ITN and the presenter, Alan Whicker. It survived an early crisis when its transmission mast at Emley Moor in West Yorkshire was toppled by storms in March 1969.
The politics of independent television were complex and hard-fought, but Thomas achieved a coup in 1970 by rescuing the smaller Tyne Tees station and bringing it under a new holding company, Trident Television – of which Yorkshire’s shareholders had control – which formed the second largest independent operator after Thames Television in London. Trident’s chairman in due course was the industrialist James (later Lord) Hanson, with Thomas as his deputy and, from 1976, successor.
According to one historian, working with Hanson encouraged in Thomas “a sturdy but volatile talent as an entrepreneur”. Adoption of Hanson’s philosophy of growth by acquisition took Trident – with mixed results – into commercial radio, television rental in Australia and the ownership of attractions such as Windsor Safari Park and Scarborough Zoo.
When Trident was obliged by the IBA in the 1980 franchising round to demerge its television interests, its next move was to acquire a lucrative string of London casinos from Hugh Hefner’s Playboy empire. The gaming business was not Thomas’s preferred milieu, however. He stepped down from the Trident chair in 1984 to live near Saint-paul-de-vence in the south of France. But he kept a fatherly eye on Yorkshire Television, and emerged from retirement in 1993 to retake the helm.
By then fully merged with Tyne Tees, the group had overbid for franchise renewals, oversold some £15 million worth of advertising time it could not fulfil, and fallen into losses. Thomas first had to demand the resignation of chief executive Clive Leach – a decision he found “desperately difficult … because we had been friends” – but from which he did not flinch.
As chairman and acting chief executive Thomas returned the business to profit via deep cost cuts, appointed the Australian Bruce Gyngell, formerly of TV-AM, to succeed him in the chief executive role, and steered Yorkshire Tyne Tees towards acquisition by Granada in 1997. Approaching his 74th birthday, he felt able to retire for the second time.
Gwyn Edward Thomas, always known as Ward, was born at Wimbledon on August 1 1923, the only child of William Thomas, a master tailor, and his wife Constance, née Daborn. Ward was educated at Bloxham School and spent a year at a lycée in Rouen until the German invasion in May 1940, when the British consul advised him to get out. Having tried to reach Paris against the flow of refugees fleeing the capital, he found his way home from St Malo.
He joined the RAF in October 1941 and trained as a navigator in South Africa. On return to the UK he converted to the Lancaster bomber. He joined 550 Squadron in December 1943. This was at the height of the so-called Battle of Berlin, when Bomber Command’s losses were at their highest.
He was commissioned in March 1944; three months later he completed his tour of 30 operations over occupied Europe and was awarded the DFC.
After completing a navigation instructor’s course at the Central Navigation School, he became an instructor at a heavy bomber training unit. In December 1945 he transferred to Transport Command and spent his last few months in the RAF flying with 76 Squadron on worldwide routes.
After leaving the RAF in September 1946 as a flight lieutenant, Thomas became a pilot for Swissair, captaining a weekly 22-hour flight from Zurich to New York – where, during his stopovers, he first became aware of the new world of commercial television.
After returning to England he became one of the first advertising salesmen for Granada after its launch in Manchester in 1954, and in 1960 he joined a consortium to apply for the franchise that became Grampian Television in Aberdeen. He began as sales director but was rapidly promoted to chief executive. Always a robust operator, he won an early battle against unions by threatening to close the station if staff supported their demands.
In the early 1950s, Thomas also made a name for himself as a racing driver, winning races at Brands Hatch and at Namur in Belgium, and becoming a member of the British Racing Drivers Club.
He was appointed CBE in 1973 and was twice married: first, in 1945, to Patricia Cornelius (dissolved 1989), and secondly, in 1991, to Janice Topp, who survives him with their son, and a daughter of the first marriage.
Ward Thomas, born August 1 1923, died February 4 2019