BORN HULL 1882. SON OF JOHN R. WARD (DOCK LABOURER), OF 6 EBENEEZER’S TERRACE, LEE SMITH STREET, HULL (1901 CENSUS). HE WAS MARRIED AND LIVED AT 12 BUCKINGHAM CRESCENT, BUCKINGHAM STREET, HULL. HE ENLISTED IN THE 2ND HULL PAL. KILLED IN ACTION, ON 16/06/1916, AGED 33. HE LEFT A WIDOW, FLORENCE, AND TWO CHILDREN. HIS DEATH AND ADDRESS WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL, ON 12/07/1916. *
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE MICHAEL HENRY WARD 11/1216. Born in late 1882, Michael appears to have been the only son of John Ward of 6 Ebenezer Terrace, Hull. Both father and son were Dock Labourers. Michael lived with his wife, Florence, and their two children at 12 Doras Terrace, Raven Street, Hull. When war came he joined the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, the second of the Hull Pals battalions nicknamed ‘The Tradesmen’. He served in Egypt before arriving on the Western Front in March 1916. Michael was killed in action on 16th June 1916 and is buried at Sucrerie Military Cemetery; he was 34 years old. It is a little frustrating as a researcher that these men seem to pass unnoticed, lost to history, perhaps because of the cataclysm to follow. On 1st July 1916 the Somme Offensive got underway, and the carnage that followed eclipses the day-to-day losses of a man here and a man there; but these were men with families and friends just the same as any who lost their life on that fateful day, and deserve better. They ALL mattered.
