The Wards had been proprietors of Bangor since 1709, but Ward House is named in honour of Colonel Robert Ward in particular. It was he who, in 1829, left £1,000 ‘for the use of …the Corporation of Bangor, to be expended by them in building and endowing a school house for the education of boys in mathematics, astronomy and navigation’.

Although the school was not established until 1856, it is still to Robert Ward that we owe our existence. The Ward family continued to play an important role in the school for many years, and a member of the family attended the opening ceremony of the College Avenue buildings in 1906.