Bron Ward - Telegraph Bronson Patricia Ward was born on February 9 1932 and brought up at Letchworth, Hertfordshire, where she attended the local grammar school. Aged 18 she embarked on a three-year training course at Nonington College, near Dover, aiming to become a physical training instructor. She was already an expert gymnast, a fine hockey and tennis player, and an excellent swimmer who represented her county. On September 6 1952 her 19-year-old boyfriend, Philip Star, took her as a treat to the Farnborough Air Show. On that day, in front of 130,000 spectators, the demonstration of the prototype De Havilland 110 fighter went terribly wrong. The aircraft had just broken the sound barrier when, during a second low-level fly-past, it disintegrated, showering the spectators below with debris. One engine ploughed into Observation Hill, where there was a dense crowd. In all, 29 spectators were killed, along with the pilot, John Derry, and the on-board flight test observer; 60 others on the ground were injured. Among those who died was Philip Star. Bron Ward had her left leg blown off and her right leg badly broken. She was taken to the Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot, where she would spend months undergoing operations to save her right leg, treatment which ultimately proved successful. Bron Ward was still in hospital when she discovered that her favourite singer, Joan Hammond, was due to appear at a cinema in Guildford. Her request to attend the concert was refused; but one of her nurses, with the help of men from the local St John Ambulance, lowered her - and her bed - through the window of the ward, and took her to see the show, after which Joan Hammond came out for a chat and presented Bron with the bouquet of roses she had received on stage. Following her release from hospital, Bron Ward took up swimming again, and in 1953 started a two-year course at the City of Leicester Training college to obtain a Certificate in Education . In August 1954 she was awarded the Amateur Swimming Association's teachers" certificate . On leaving college in 1955 she took a teaching post at Hitchin High School. In the late 1950s she worked for four terms at Tudor Hall School in Banbury, teaching biology, then spent three years (1959-62) at the National Society's Training College of Domestic Subjects in Hampstead as a lecturer in health education. In 1962 she moved to Anstey College as a senior lecturer in education, at the same time studying for the Diploma in Education at Birmingham University. She was awarded a Master's at Manchester University in 1967. In 1971 she was appointed Principal of Crewe College of Education, where she introduced many changes and improved the facilities and accommodation for staff and students. When Crewe and Alsager colleges merged a few years later she was appointed director. The college became an incorporated institution in 1989 and she was made chief executive. She retired in 1992. She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and was appointed CBE in 1982. Bron Ward was an inveterate traveller . Her last cruise was on a Russian ice-breaker to the Antarctic, during which the sea was so rough that she spent much of the trip lying on her cabin floor - but she pronounced it worthwhile just to be lifted off the ship on to the Antarctic ice. On one occasion, when lazing on an Australian beach, she decided to go for a swim and removed her artificial leg, leaving it beside her towel. As she was swimming she heard a commotion on the beach; a woman had found her leg and was running up and down the beach shouting that there had been a shark attack. Bron Ward was unmarried. Bron Ward, born February 9 1932, died May 11 2012