Serving as an ordinary soldier for three years before being sent for officer training in 1926, slow peacetime career progression saw Ward achieving the rank of captain only in 1937.

However, the Second World War, which began just two years later, allowed him to demonstrate his high ability as both a staff officer and a commander of troops in the field.

Educated at Wimborne Grammar School, Ward went on to serve in the British Army as an other rank for three years before entering the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

In late 1941 he was selected for command and was posted to lead the 43rd (Wessex) Reconnaissance Regiment (43 Recce), previously the 5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, initially the reconnaissance unit of the 48th (South Midland) Infantry Division, a Territorial Army (TA) formation, and then, from November 1941, of the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division, another TA unit.

[18] Ward's brigade, as part of the First Battle of Monte Cassino, conducted an amphibious crossing of the Garigliano river in mid-January and was involved in heavy fighting until the end of the month.

[8] This made Ward, at the time, one of the youngest division commanders in the British Army (only George Roberts, James Cassels, and Richard Hull being younger).

The division, composed of the 10th, 12th and 28th Infantry Brigades, along with supporting divisional troops, had only recently arrived in Italy from Egypt, where it had been refitting since the end of the Tunisian campaign in mid-May 1943 and had to be rapidly prepared and brought to peak fitness.

[19] The division, serving as part of Lieutenant General Sidney Kirkman's XIII Corps, had recently arrived in Italy to reinforce the Eighth Army and was assigned a major role in the forthcoming offensive that was intended to finally break through the Gustav Line.

[19] In December 1944, with progress in Italy having slowed due to the severe winter weather, combined with strong German resistance, the division expected to be sent to the Middle East to rest and refit, but was instead moved to Greece, where it was involved in fighting against Communist partisans opposed to the new provisional government.

[25] After the war, having demonstrated in the previous five years high competence as both a field commander and staff officer,[22] Ward received appointments in both disciplines at the highest levels.

He was promoted to substantive major general in 1947[26] and appointed in quick succession as Director of Military Operations at the War Office and commandant of the Staff College, Camberley, in 1947 and 1948 respectively.