Edward Ward, 7th Viscount Bangor

Edward Henry Harold Ward, 7th Viscount Bangor (5 November 1905 – 8 May 1993) was an Anglo-Irish peer, journalist, war correspondent, and author.

Early life

The son of Maxwell Ward, 6th Viscount Bangor, by his marriage to Agnes Elizabeth Hamilton, third daughter of Dacre Hamilton, of Cornacassa, County Monaghan,^[1] Ward was educated first at Wixenford,^[2] then, like his father, at Harrow and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.^[1]

Career

Becoming a journalist, Ward went overseas as a Reuters correspondent for China and the Far East. In 1937 he was taken on by the BBC as a radio announcer, and in 1939 was sent as a BBC war correspondent to Finland to cover what became known as the Winter War. On 12 March 1940, Ward delivered a sensational international scoop, when BBC Radio News carried his story of a ceasefire agreed between the Soviet Union and Finland, a day before it was formally announced. Ward was then deployed to Belgium and France, just before the Phoney War ended in Blitzkrieg. He escaped from the German advance by taking a ship from Bordeaux to Egypt, where the BBC used him to take the place of another correspondent, Richard Dimbleby. In November 1941 he was taken prisoner by Italian forces at Tobruk following the Battle of Sidi Rezegh.^[3] He spent the rest of the Second World War as a prisoner of war in Italian and later German camps. In March 1945 he was among those liberated by American forces from Oflag XII-B, a camp for officers near Limburg an der Lahn.^[4]

After the war, Ward worked as a foreign correspondent around the world until 1960. In 1950, he succeeded his father as Viscount Bangor, a title in the peerage of Ireland.^[1][4] He published several books, including three volumes of autobiography.^[4]

He appeared as a "castaway" on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 28 August 1961.^[5]

Bangor's obituary in The Independent called him "one of the very best of the BBC's war correspondents.^[4]

Private life

In 1933, Ward married firstly Elizabeth Balfour, of Wrockwardine Hall, Wellington, Shropshire; but she divorced him in 1937. The same year, he married secondly Mary Kathleen Middleton, of Shanghai; and this marriage ended in divorce in 1947. That same year, he married thirdly Leila Mary Heaton, with whom he had one son, William Maxwell David Ward, before his third divorce in 1951. In 1951, he married lastly Marjorie Alice Simpson, formerly Banks, with whom he had a second son and a daughter Lalla.^[1][4]

At the time of his death on 8 May 1993, Lord Bangor's address was 59, Cadogan Square, London SW1; and he was a member of the Savile and Garrick clubs.^[1]

Books

• Despatches from Finland: January–April 1940 (London: John Lane, 1940)
• Give Me Air (London: John Lane, 1946), about being a prisoner of war
• Chinese Crackers (London: John Lane the Bodley Head, 1947)
• Europe on Record (London: Wingate, 1950), with Marjorie Ward
• The US and Us (1951), with Marjorie Ward
• Danger is Their Business (London: Cassell, 1955), with Marjorie Ward
• The New Eldorado: Venezuela (London: Hale, 1957)
• Oil is Where They Find It (London: Harrap, 1959)
• Sahara Story (New York: Norton, 1962)
• Number One Boy (London: Michael Joseph, 1969)
• I've Lived like a Lord (London: Michael Joseph, 1970)

References