[1] Following her success in this Robert Courtneidge offered her the role of Betty in the Edwardian musical comedy The Dairymaids at the Apollo Theatre in London (1906) opposite Phyllis Dare and Walter Passmore.
After the first performance he presented her with a quaint ring: it consisted of two large diamonds, set one on each side of a shamrock leaf in emeralds – similar to the one he gave to Lily Elsie when she made her first big hit in The Merry Widow.
[2] They appeared in pantomimes together until 1914 when Ward was cast as Louise opposite Fay Compton and Cicely Courtneidge in The Cinema Star, which toured the provinces before opening at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London.
[2] Ward's performance in Quality Street gained harsh reviews from some critics, with Dorothy Parker commenting; 'They have brought over from England a lady named Dorothy Ward to play the title role of Phoebe in Quality Street and, considering what a first-class passage costs these days, it seems really staggering to think of the money that could have been saved by the simple means of letting her stay happily at home... she has been billed by a hysterical press agent, as "England's greatest comédienne".
I don't pretend to be right up to the minute with what is going on upon the British stage, but I can say with perfect safety that if she is England's greatest comédienne, then I'm Mrs.
[11] Another critic wrote that Ward's was the season's 'most astonishing piece of casting' and that she approached her role in the 'dainty' operetta 'in the frenzied manner usually reserved for the mad scenes in Italian opera'.
At the last minute, however, Ward was called to replace Clarice Mayne in Jack and the Beanstalk at the London Hippodrome opposite George Robey.
The actor Roy Hudd wrote of Ward's appearance as Colin the Miller's Son in a pantomime of Puss in Boots in 1941: At the dress rehearsal she made her first entrance in her "poor boy" costume but wearing a positive fistful of diamond rings.
In an interview in 1954 while appearing as Dick Whittington at the Kingston Empire she was reluctant to discuss her date of birth, saying, "I want audiences to enjoy the pantomime – not to wonder if I’ve got my own teeth!"
[2] During her career Ward performed a number of songs by her and Glenville's friend, Fred Godfrey, including: 'Meet Me Jenny When The Sun Goes Down' in pantomime in Belfast in 1908.
Music hall historian W. Macqueen-Pope called her: a handsome and striking woman, with auburn hair, wonderful carriage and fine figure.