Philip Ward

Major General Sir Philip John Newling Ward, (10 July 1924 – 6 January 2003) was a Welsh Guards officer whose skilled diplomacy calmed the rulers of the Gulf States as Britain prepared to withdraw from the region. Ward served as high sheriff of West Sussex (1985–86), and a deputy lieutenant from 1981. Thereafter he was Lord-Lieutenant of West Sussex (1994–99), having been Vice Lord-Lieutenant of the county from 1990 to 1994. Early life Philip Ward was the son of G. W. N. Ward and was educated at Monkton Combe School near Bath. He was commissioned into the Welsh Guards in 1943 and served with the 2nd Battalion in the armoured reconnaissance role, equipped with Cromwell tanks, during the campaign in North West Europe in the Guards Armoured Division. This included Operation Goodwood – the start of the breakout from the eastern end of the Normandy Bridgehead – the subsequent fighting in the countryside of the bocage and the armoured dash to Brussels. It is believed that it was one of 2nd Welsh Guards' Cromwell tanks that was the first to enter Brussels on 3 September 1944, before going on to Nijmegen. The battalion suffered many casualties during the early months of the campaign. Post-war and Gulf diplomacy Much of his service after the Second World War was concerned with the exacting demands of military ceremonial at unit, and later, at state level. He was adjutant of the Eaton Hall Infantry Officer Cadet School, 1950–52, and of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, 1960–62, before being appointed Brigade Major of the Household Division and London District in 1962. In this last assignment he was responsible for orchestrating all ceremonial events in which the Household Cavalry and Foot Guards were involved, from the annual Trooping the Colour on the official birthday of the Queen down to the almost weekly guards of honour for visiting foreign dignitaries. After commanding the 1st Welsh Guards in Aden and the Western Protectorate, he found the job in the Ministry of Defence tedious and was thinking of leaving the Army when, out of the blue, he was appointed Commander Land Forces, Gulf, as a Brigadier, in 1969. By then the Aden base had been abandoned and the British Headquarters in the Middle East shifted to Bahrain. Abandonment of Aden and the Protectorate sheikhs caused the Gulf State rulers to look to their own guarantees from Britain and – especially those newly rich with oil – to a greater independence in their foreign affairs.