The Thomas W. Ward shipbreaking business emerged as a branch of the already established Thomas W. Ward business in the 1890s. The business originally started in Sheffield in the 1870s as a coke and coal merchant, before expanding into scrap metal, used machinery dealing, and later the manufacture of machinery.

In 1894 the company started shipbreaking activities, over the proceeding decades establishing operations at several locations, the companies largest operation being at Inverkeithing on the Firth of Forth, which the company purchased after the end of World War One to work on the disposal of surplus and salvaged vessels from the war. Other sites included Barrow, Pembroke, Frog Island, Briton Ferry, Grays, Hayle, Jarrow, Birkenhead, Milford Haven and Morecambe.

At its peak the business was the largest supplier of scrap metal to industry in the country, and broke up many notable vessels including SS Majestic, RMS Olympic, Empress of Australia, HMS Dreadnaught and HMS Rodney.

Alongside the shipbreaking enterprise other aspects of the business continued to operate including the long established Portland cement manufacturing operation and many subsidiary metal-processing and manufacturing businesses, many established through the purchase of existing businesses.

In common with other shipbreaking businesses the industry’s fortunes declined due to a lack of work into the 1970s, resulting in the closure of sites, with the shipbreaking business finally closing in the early 1980s. In 1982 the remaining large business was purchased by Rio Tinto Zinc, and over the following years businesses were largely consumed into the parent company’s operations, sold off or closed.