The daughter of an Anglican vicar, she studied at the National Training School of Cookery and became a cook.
She became interested in socialism and joined the Social Democratic Federation in Tunbridge Wells, teaching a class on Marxist economics.
[1] Ward supported women's suffrage, joining the Adult Suffrage Society, and serving as its secretary from 1908 to 1909.
[1] She was also on the Women's Labour League committee and was a close friend of its leader, Margaret Bondfield, who shared a house with her and Ethel Clarke at one time.
[2] In 1911, Ward gave up activism to become the Chief Woman Inspector for the National Insurance Act 1911.