Joseph Ward

Charged through rebel guns under heavy fire at Gwalior Fort.

Joseph Ward was born at Kinsale, County Cork, in 1832 and worked as a clerk. He enlisted in the 8th Hussars in November 1854 and joined the regiment in the Crimea the following year. He went to India in 1857 and became a sergeant in May 1858.

On 17 June 1858 near Gwalior, a squadron of the 8th Hussars charged with the 95th Regiment against forces threatening Brigadier Smith’s position. They passed through the enemy camp and captured two guns under heavy fire. Ward was wounded. Chosen by his fellow non-commissioned officers for the Victoria Cross, he received it in India on 18 June 1859.

He remained in the Army, serving as a troop sergeant-major before reductions in rank. By 1866 he was again a private. His subsequent service is incompletely documented. He died at Longford in November 1872 and was buried in St John’s churchyard.

Official citation:

Selected for the Victoria Cross by their companions in the gallant charge made by a squadron of the Regiment at Gwalior, on the 17th of June, 1858, when, supported by a division of the Bombay Horse Artillery, and Her Majesty’s 95th Regiment, they routed the enemy, who were advancing against Brigadier Smith’s position, charged through the rebel camp into two batteries, capturing and bringing into their camp two of the enemy’s guns, under heavy and converging fire from the Fort and Town.