Sergeant Philip W Ward

Philip Walter Ward was the son of Walter and Edith Ward of Fincham, Norfolk and was born at Beachamwell, Norfolk on February 12 1925. His father was a shepherd whilst his mother was a former children's nanny. He left school aged 14 in summer 1939 and became an apprentice carpenter. Philip joined the Fincham Home Guard in 1941, aged 16.

In 15 April 1943 he was called up into the General Service Corps in Beverley. He was posted to the Cheshire Regiment Depot where he trained as a machine gunner and then to 2nd Bn Cheshire Regiment before volunteering for airborne forces.

Private Ward qualified as a military parachutist on course 115, which ran at RAF Ringway in May 1944. It was noted on the course that he "worked hard". He was initially posted to No2 Airborne Forces Holding Unit at Clay Cross near Chesterfield, before being posted to 9th Parachute Battalion at Bulford as a reinforcement.

Posted to Normandy in July 1944, he served as No. 2 on the Vickers MMG of Cpl James McGuinness MM. He participated in the break-out to the Seine in August and saw action at Dozule, Pont L'Eveque and Beuzeville.

Pte Ward fought in the Ardennes during the winter of 1944-5 and took part in the funeral of the young men shot by the Germans as spies in Bande, escorting their coffins to the nearby village of Grune for burial.

In February 1945, Ward manned a machine gun position in the village of Horn in the Netherlands. He helped hold the line here for two weeks until relief arrived from the Americans. 

He parachuted in as part of the Rhine Crossings during Operation Varsity in March 1945, subsequently advancing to the Baltic with the 3rd Parachute Brigade. He remembered German tanks rolling west with their guns dipped and white flags waving.

Following the end of the war, Sergeant Ward served with the 9th Bn in Palestine until demob in September 1947 as a platoon sergeant in charge of four Vickers machine guns. His hand coloured profile picture was taken in 1946.

Ward joined St John Ambulance Brigade, establishing the Fincham division in 1957. He was appointed to the Legion d'honneur in 2019 in recognition of his service. 

Philip Ward married Mabel Irene Cason (Casey) in 1947, but she later died. After her death, Ward remarried Kathy Jordan. He had a daughter and two sons.

Ward sadly passed away on August 3, 2023.