  After one of his father’s bankruptcies, Ward remained for two years without schooling and occupation. At the age of thirteen and a half, the boy was let free to occupy his time as he wished. In the small country town where his family had moved, Waterloo near Liverpool, he developed a spirit of solitude and a love of nature. A ‘Memoir’ written by the philosopher’s daughter, Olwen Ward Campbell, enables us to get a glimpse of his life in these early years: “Waterloo was only a village in those days, and wild stretches of sandhills lay beyond it for many miles. Here he used to wander for hours on end, alone with his thoughts and the sea birds” (1927: 7).