Highly-decorated soldier and first President of BAUS
Ronald Ogier Ward DSO, OBE, MC, MCh, FRCS was born in London on 6 March 1886. His father, Allan Ogier Ward and grandfather, Thomas Ogier Ward were also doctors and both had experienced their own wartime adventures.
As a student at Bart’s, he joined the Honourable Artillery Company, with whom he volunteered to serve in a British Ambulance Unit during the Serbo-Turkish War (1912-1913). During the First World War, he commanded a gun battery with the Honourable Artillery Company. In March 1918, he saved his guns from German capture, preventing a breakthrough of the British line; for his bravery, he won the Military Cross and Distinguished Service Order.
After the war, he worked at Bart’s and then, having developed an interest in Urology, joined the staff of St Peter's Hospital for Stone. He was known as a careful surgeon and meticulous clinician. He was made president of the Urology Section of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1935.
Too old to fight in The Second World War, he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, commanding a surgical division in France. He was awarded the OBE for his services during the Dunkirk evacuation.
Ward took part in discussions of the Government’s White Paper on the new National Health Service, becaming concerned that there was no organisation in Britain to represent Urology. As a result, he then became the driving force behind the creation of BAUS.
On 17 March 1945 Ronald Ogier Ward was elected first President of the new British Association of Urological Surgeons.
He died on Palm Sunday (4 April) 1971.
Papers and obituaries
Obituary of his Grandfather (Thomas Ogier Ward)
Originally printed in the British Medical Journal in 1879 |
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"Six Days in March 1918"
From the Journal of The Honourable Royal Artillery Company in 1928 |
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Obituary of his Father (Allen Ogier Ward)
Originally printed in the British Medical Journal in 1933 |
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"13 Days on Service in France after Dunkirk"
Published in 1958 when Ogier Ward had reached the rank of Brigadier |
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| Obituary in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) |
Read the BMJ obituary |
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