Guy Granet, 'The Midland'

William Guy Granet (1867–1943), general manager of the Midland Railway and one of the most powerful railwaymen in Edwardian Britain, receives the affectionate treatment Ward reserved for capable administrators. The chromolithograph shows a stout, well-dressed figure in a dark frock coat and waistcoat, a watch-chain at his hip, one hand pocketed and the other raised with what appears to be a cigarette — the posture of a man comfortable with authority. The caption, 'The Midland,' identifies him entirely through his institution. Ward's caricature works through bodily amplitude and self-satisfied bearing, gently ribbing the prosperous confidence of a man who ran one of Britain's great railway companies at the height of its prestige.