Ward joined the
Oxfordshire Light Infantry from school and was commissioned a
second lieutenant on 1 December 1897. He saw active service in India, where he took part in the
Tirah Campaign under Sir
William Lockhart 1897–98, and was promoted a
lieutenant on 28 October 1898 . In April 1902 he was seconded for service under Foreign office, and joined the
King's East African Rifles in
Uganda. He later transferred to this regiment, eventually commanding the regiment and, at the start of the
First World War, being in charge of all forces in East Africa. He held the rank of
Lieutenant-Colonel but was made an acting
brigadier-general in operations in Western Europe later in the War, being twice wounded and twice mentioned in dispatches. He retired from the Army at the end of the war and from 1924 to 1929 was
ADC to the
Governor-General of Nyasaland,
Sir Charles Calvert Bowring; his obituary states that he had bought property in what is now
Malawi and was intending to retire there, but he died after an operation in London. ==Cricket career==