General Sir Alfred Dudley Ward, (27 January 1905 – 28 December 1991), commonly known as Sir Dudley Ward, was a senior British Army officer who saw distinguished active service during the Second World War and later became Governor of Gibraltar. Serving as an ordinary soldier for three years before being sent for officer training in 1926, slow peacetime career progression saw Ward achieving the rank of captain only in 1937. However, the Second World War, which began just two years later, allowed him to demonstrate his high ability as both a staff officer and a commander of troops in the field. Receiving command of the 4th Infantry Division at the unusually young age of 39 years and 3 months old, he led the division in Italy and Greece from 1944 to 1945. After the war ended in 1945, Ward went on to hold several staff and field appointments at the highest levels, including Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff (DCIGS) and Commander-in-Chief of the British Army of the Rhine, retiring as a full general in 1965.
Early life and military career
Dudley Ward was born on 27 January 1905 in Avenue Road, Wimborne, Dorset, England, the son of Lionell Howell Ward and Lillie Maud (née Morgan). Educated at Wimborne Grammar School, Ward went on to serve in the British Army as an other rank for three years before entering the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. From Sandhurst he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Dorsetshire Regiment in January 1929. In December 1931 he was posted to India to be aide-de-camp to the Commander of the Lahore District, achieved promotion to lieutenant in January 1932, and completed his posting in September 1932. He went on to the Staff College, Quetta in 1935, where Bernard Montgomery was one of his instructors. In 1937, Ward was promoted to captain, transferring to the King's Regiment (Liverpool) for an appropriate vacancy. In February 1939 he was seconded to India for staff service as a General Staff Officer Grade 3 (GSO3), but was recalled to London in July.
Second World War
Service in the United Kingdom
By the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Ward was serving as a GSO2 in the Directorate of Military Intelligence at the War Office in London. In May 1940 Ward was appointed as an instructor at the Staff College, Camberley, before returning to the War Office a year later. In late 1941 he was selected for command and was posted to lead the 43rd (Wessex) Reconnaissance Regiment (43 Recce), previously the 5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, initially the reconnaissance unit of the 48th (South Midland) Infantry Division, a Territorial Army (TA) formation, and then, from November 1941, of the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division, another TA unit. The division, then commanded by Major General Charles Allfrey succeeded in March 1942 by Major General Ivor Thomas, was serving in Kent under XII Corps, then commanded byLieutenant General James Gammell, itself serving under South-Eastern Command, under Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery. Under Montgomery numerous large-scale exercises became the order of the day, most notable among them Exercise Tiger in May 1942.
Ward remained with 43 Recce until July 1942 when he became Brigadier General Staff (BGS) XII Corps, still under Gammell but commanded from November by Lieutenant General Montagu Stopford. XII Corps was stationed in Kent where it formed part of South-Eastern Command. Throughout the rest of 1942 and into 1943, the corps, with the 3rd, 43rd (Wessex), 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Divisions under command, participated in numerous large-scale exercises, most notably in Exercise Spartan in March 1943, the largest military exercise held in the United Kingdom. Stopford appears to have formed a high opinion of Ward, as he recommended him for command in the field, which saw him depart for the Mediterranean in September 1943.
Italy and Greece
In late September 1943 Ward exchanged jobs with Brigadier Roy Urquhart to take command of the 231st Brigade Group while Urquhart became BGS XII Corps, which had seen recent action in the Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky). However, within a week of arriving he was ordered to exchange jobs once more, and assumed command of the 17th Infantry Brigade which, strangely, Stopford, his corps commander in England, had commanded in France in 1940. The brigade was one of three which formed part of Major General Gerard Bucknall's 5th Infantry Division, which Ward led in the early stages of the Italian campaign as part of the British Eighth Army, commanded by Montgomery.