Brigadier John Michael Stewart Wardell (19 June 1895 – 29 April 1978) was a British-born army officer and publisher.
His eye was pierced by a thorn when his horse jumped a gate overhung with blackthorn and an operation to save his sight was unsuccessful.
Wardell subsequently worked with Lt. Col. Eric Harris, a Canadian artillery officer, to finish developing the land mattress in September 1944.
[8][5] Wardell left the army at the end of the war with the rank of Brigadier and went back to working for Beaverbrook, this time at the Daily Express.
[1]: 56 In August 1949, while visiting Lord Beaverbrook at La Capponcina, his villa at Cap-d'Ail, he was witness to Sir Winston Churchill’s first stroke.
With the financial backing of Beaverbrook and others, including Sir James Dunn, he also acquired a printing company and a retail store selling books and stationery.
These, and the newspaper, were absorbed by the University Press of New Brunswick Ltd. (also known as the Brunswick Press), which Wardell had incorporated in December 1950 "for the purpose of printing, publishing, stimulating the graphic arts, and carrying out the trade of printing and publishing books, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, and decorative works of all kinds."
[6] Wardell invested heavily in the venture, purchasing a new headquarters building in downtown Fredericton and a sophisticated printing press which he imported from England.
[3] Beaverbrook did not approve of Wardell's lavish spending on such items as new state of the art darkroom equipment, and advised him against adding the book imprint, commercial printing operation, etc.
Irving was extremely opposed to the "Equal Opportunity" social and tax reforms introduced in the 1960s by Liberal premier Louis Robichaud and Wardell used the Daily Gleaner to attack Robichaud violently, publishing editorial cartoons portraying the Acadian premier as Hitler or Louis XIV.
[12]: 215 In 1968 Irving exercised his option to buy out Wardell and gain ownership of the University Press of New Brunswick, including the Daily Gleaner and the Atlantic Advocate.