He began working at the age of ten, selling newspapers on a street corner after early-morning schooling.
He left school two years later and worked as a cabin boy on a fishing boat operating out of Great Yarmouth.
[2] At the age of fourteen, he returned to Norwich and learnt shoemaking,[3] gradually building himself a reputation as one of the best in the city.
The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party, and Witard stood unsuccessfully for it in Norwich at the 1918 and 1922 UK general elections.
[2] In 1936, Witard claimed to have seen a sea serpent while walking on the beach at Eccles, Norfolk, with Charles Ammon and Archibald Gossling.