When I started my search for Angela Banner a number of years ago, I was thwarted in my attempts to find out any information about the illustrator of the Ant and Bee books. This became even more frustrating when they started republishing the Ant and Bee books with truncated text and absurdly simplistic new illustrations. I would periodically wonder and wander again with no luck. However, I was urged on again when someone commented on my first post about having a Bryan Ward illustration and wanting to know more about him .... so the quest resumed, with great success this time!

Doing my usual Google search got me started on the wrong foot, however. I had not paid much attention before to the fact that the Ant and Bee books had been published by a firm with "Ward" in its name (first Edmund Ward and later Ward & Kaye). This did have some value as i learned about the connection between the original publisher and the publisher (Egmont) which is putting out new versions. The connection was made because it is the same publisher which put out the Thomas the Tank Engine books, and a blogger in that arena has written:

Kaye & Ward Ltd. was the publisher of The Railway Series from 1967 until 1988, succeeding its imprint Edmund Ward. It was a subsidiary of William Heinemann from 1984 to 1998.

In 1952, Franklyn Edmund Ward sold his eponymous publishing house to the London printers, Straker Brothers Ltd., who had also taken over another small publisher, Nicholas Kaye Limited. The two companies were merged into Kaye & Ward, though they retained the "Edmund Ward" imprint to publish some titles, including the Railway Series.

Starting with Small Railway Engines in 1967, the "Edmund Ward" imprint was dropped and the Railway Series was published directly under the Kaye & Ward name.^[1]

William Heinemann acquired the company in 1984, but the "Kaye & Ward" imprint was used until 1988. Heinemann's owner, Octopus Publishing, was acquired by Reed Children's Books in 1987^[2].On 25th April 1998, Reed International sold their children's books division to Egmont UK Limited and the copyright of the Railway Series to the Britt Allcroft Company for £13.5 million.^[3]^[4] Egmont acquired the rights to publish the Railway Series, and in the same year they published the new format versions of series.^[5]
Kaye & Ward remains in being as part of Egmont, but is dormant.^[6]

So I used this to try to find a Bryan associated with Franklyn Edmund Ward to no avail.

Then I remembered that I had a subscription to the British Newspaper Archives (for other research purposes) and that I had never used that to look about Ant and Bee. And, Eureka!, Bryan Ward is found. Several articles from the Leicester newspapers have given Bryan Ward life. The earliest few are from the Leicester Evening Mail. First from July 26, 1952:

The second is from August 10, 1954:

The third is form July 2, 1958:

We then skip ahead almost 20 years (past his Ant and Bee debut) to two articles from the Leicester Chronicle. The first, from January 3, 1975:

Next, this article from September 16, 1977 (hard to reproduce as it crossed the fold of two pages in the paper, so hope this gets close):

As all this may be hard to read (clicking should give you bigger picture). Here is what we learn about him (from these articles and other searches):

He is from Leicester. And with that information, I found a painting of his (see below) at the Leicester Museum & Art Gallery showing his dates as 1921-1987 [although the first article above from 1958 speaks of him as being 32, which would put his birth year a few years later. There is a death record for a Bryan Ward in Leicestershire from 1987, with a birth date of September 11, 1925.].
He attended Wyggeston Boys School and, while there, was awarded a Sir Jonathan North Medal for drawing.
He published a book "Sindibad's First Voyage" in 1942 with Edmund Ward ("not related")
From 1943 to 1947 he served in the British Army, first with the Leicestershire Regiment, and then with the Royal Engineers map production section in Ceylon, Singapore and Batavia.
Attended Leicester College of Art for one year after his military service.
Worked for an animated film company in Cookham run by "David Hand, one of Disney's right hand men" (maybe here?), including a short film on Devon ("Devon Whey"--synopsis available here--although he is credited as 'Brian Ward" or "Brian Wared"!).
Returned to Leicester in 1953 [although Wikipedia suggests film studio closed in 1950] and lived in the village of Birstall.
Did freelance book illustration, including the Ant and Bee books.
Was Secretary of the Leicester Sketch Society (now the Leicester Sketch Club, which has awarded (and maybe continues to award) a Bryan Ward prize). [Elected Secretary 1961-62; see photograph November 1962; continues reelected for 1968.]
According to an eBay listing for a work by Michael Haswell, "On completion [Haswell] continued evening classes in life drawing and had the good fortune to meet Eric Dennis, Bryan Ward and Ann Walker who had all recently joined the Leicester Sketch Club. Michael joined them in a portrait-painting group that ran for many years and joined the Sketch Club in 1965 and he became President in 1973. "
Was a partner in Spectrum, a craft centre in the Odeon Arcade. (See article below)
Painted and had his paintings exhibited.
Wrote and illustrated his own book "George the Snail Bee"

A photo of Bryan Ward accompanies an article from May 11, 1973, when the Spectrum opened:

Painting ("Small Building in Buxton, Derbyshire 1979"):

From an eBay sale:

Portrait Of A Young Man - Slade School

"This is a lovely evocative Slade school painting by the artist Bryan Ward exh 1950s-60s depicting a portrait of a young man. It is a very moody and emotional painting. The work is signed on the reverse. It is executed in oils on board and dates circa 1950s."

Following some correspondence with the Leicester Sketch Club, I found some additional materials, including the following articles about his death on August 4, 1987:

Published: Friday 07 August 1987 Newspaper: Leicester Daily Mercury County: Leicestershire, England Type: | Words: 1115 | Page: 13