- George Ward, 1st Viscount Ward of Witley
George Reginald Ward, 1st Viscount Ward of Witley, PC (
20 November 1907 -15 June 1988 ), was a British Conservative politician. He served asSecretary of State for Air from 1957 to 1960.Ward was the fourth and youngest son of
William Humble Ward, 2nd Earl of Dudley , and Rachel Gurney. He was educated atLancing College and then New College,Oxford . He served in theSecond World War as anRAF Group Captain . In 1945 he was elected to the House of Commons for Worcester, a seat he held until 1960, and served underWinston Churchill andAnthony Eden asUnder-Secretary of State for Air from 1952 to 1955 and asParliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty from 1955 to 1957. WhenHarold Macmillan became Prime Minister in January 1957 he was appointedSecretary of State for Air , which he remained until October 1960. Ward was admitted to the Privy Council in 1957 and in 1960 he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Ward of Witley, of Great Witley in the County of Worcester.Lord Ward of Whitley married firstly Anne Diana France Aysham Capell, daughter of Arthur Edward Capell, in 1940. They had two children, one son and one daughter, but were divorced in 1951. He married secondly Barbara Mary Colonsay McNeill, daughter of Ronald Frank Rous McNeill, in 1962. Lord Ward of Witley died in June 1988, aged 80. His only son Anthony Giles Humble Ward had predeceased him and as a result his title became extinct on his death.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.