In 1844 he was sent to Berlin as British commissioner for the settlement, through the arbitration of Frederick William IV of Prussia, of the so-called Portendic claims on France, arising out of a blockade by French ships of part of the African coast.
[1] In summer 1845 Lord Aberdeen appointed Ward consul-general at Leipzig, with a commission to visit places in Germany where conferences of the Zollverein would be held.
At the end of 1850 Lord Palmerston instructed him to act as secretary of legation at Dresden during the diplomatic conferences held in there, and he saw the results achieved by the policy of Austria, represented by Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg.
[1] In 1860 Ward, after being made a C.B., was nominated chargé d'affaires and consul-general for the Hanse Towns and the surrounding parts of Germany.
[1] In 1870, after the abolition of direct diplomatic relations with the Hanse Towns when they joined the North German Confederation, Ward left Hamburg.