Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ward, Thomas (1809-1858)
WARD, THOMAS, Baron Ward of the Austrian Empire (1809–1858), groom and court favourite, was born in 1809 at Howley, in Yorkshire, of humble parentage, and brought up as a groom and jockey. About 1823 he entered the stable of the Prince of Lichtenstein and went to Hungary. At that time he rode chiefly at Vienna. About 1827 he was recommended by his master to Charles Louis of Bourbon, duke of Lucca, a great lover of horses, who, attracted by his happy manner and witty speech, took him from the stable to become his personal groom and confidential servant. While in this position he suggested to his master, whose luxury and extravagance continually involved him in financial difficulties, that he might obtain assistance from Austria in return for political subservience. He brought about an arrangement in 1843 in a personal interview with Archduke Ferdinand. In 1846 he was promoted to be master of the horse and to be minister of the household and finance, with the title of baron. In these positions Ward showed undoubted ability, but his methods of administration were not too scrupulous. He is said to have sought popularity by arbitrarily lowering the price of corn, and the partial repudiation or ‘reduction’ of the debt of Lucca is also attributed to his counsels. In 1847, on the death of the Archduchess Marie Louise, duchess of Parma and former empress of the French, Ward was sent on a mission to Florence to superintend the details of the transfer of Lucca to Tuscany. In further accord with the convention of 1818 Charles Louis at the same time succeeded to the duchy of Parma.
At Parma Ward remained chief minister to the duke, and continued his subservience to the Austrian government. He was sent as ambassador-extraordinary to Spain in 1848 to negotiate the resumption of diplomatic relations, was well received by the queen, and created a knight grand cross of the order of Charles III. In the same year, on the accession of Francis Joseph, the emperor of Austria, he was deputed to congratulate him, and received the Iron Cross of Austria. On 20 May 1849 he brought about the abdication of his old patron and placed his son, Duke Charles III, on the throne of Parma. He was now sent as minister-plenipotentiary to represent the duchy at Vienna, and the emperor conferred on him the title of baron. Subsequently he came on a diplomatic mission to England, and impressed Palmerston with his tact and sagacity. Palmerston declared him to be one of the most remarkable men of the age. On 21 July 1853 he received a patent of concession of all the mining rights over iron and copper in the duchy.
In 1854 the Duke Charles III was assassinated in the gardens of his palace at Parma, and Ward was dismissed from all his offices, with some ignominy, on 27 March 1854. His late master's widow suspected that he had designs on the sovereignty of Parma. After his dismissal Ward claimed the protection of Austria, which was readily granted. For the rest of his life he devoted himself to farming near Vienna. He died on 5 Oct. 1858.
Ward, though a man of no education, acquired a fluent knowledge of German, Italian, and French. He married a Viennese girl in a humble station of life and left four children.
[Temple Bar, December 1897; Gent. Mag. 1858, ii. 535; Massei's Storia Civile di Lucca, ii. 283, to end, passim; Tivaroni's Italia degli Italiani, pp. 126 sqq.; Bianchi's Storia documentata della diplomat. Europ. in Italia, p. 42; Lord Lamington's In the Days of the Dandies, 1890, pp. 56–61.]