Robe, worn by Cr HSK Ward c1910

Summary

This bespoke-made outfit comprises a total of 12 pieces including a robe, undercoat, bicorn, bowtie, collar, pants, stockings, shoes, shirt, and cummerbund. The family believes it was made for the opening of the new Council chamber in August 1910. Harold Seymour Kellam (HSK) Ward was born in King Street in 1863. His parents William and Frances arrived from Manchester, England, in 1852. As a young man in the early 1880s HSK Ward developed the grain store business, which had been started by his parents in the 1850s, expanding into chaff, oats, potatoes and other essentials of the day. He married Ada Granite Hansen and had five children, Ruby, Harold, Aubrey, Dudley and Verna. By the end of the 1890s HSK Ward had four chaff mills, and by the early 1900s turnover in the business had risen to around 300,000 pounds. In 1911 the Spencer Street premises were formally opened before a large gathering of representatives of the grain and produce trade and several prominent figures including Lord Mayor Davey and members of the Melbourne City Council. HSK Ward was a Councillor from 1906 to 1919. In 1920 he turned his business as a grain, chaff and produce merchant into a company concentrating on manufacturing, trading as HSK Ward Pty Ltd. He retired from the company in 1925 and died in 1935.