author

Fred W. Ward

A British Army captain and former member of the First Sportsman’s Battalion, he wrote a firsthand history of the 23rd Royal Fusiliers and their service in World War I. His surviving work feels close to the people in it, blending military record with the voice of someone who was there.

1 Audiobook

The 23rd (Service) Battalion Royal Fusiliers (First Sportsman's)

The 23rd (Service) Battalion Royal Fusiliers (First Sportsman's)

by Fred W. Ward

About the author

Fred W. Ward is known for The 23rd (Service) Battalion Royal Fusiliers (First Sportsman's): A Record of its Services in the Great War, 1914-1919, first published in London by Sidgwick & Jackson in 1920. Project Gutenberg and library records consistently identify him as the author of that book.

The book itself gives the clearest glimpse of who he was: its title page describes him as "Captain R.E., formerly No. 662 First Sportsman's Battalion." That suggests Ward wrote not as a distant historian, but as someone with direct experience of the battalion whose story he recorded.

Little else about his life could be confirmed from the sources available here, so most biographical details remain uncertain. What does stand out is the character of his work: a firsthand, memorial-style account of a distinctive wartime unit, valued today by readers of World War I history and preserved in public-domain and library collections.