Ward, Galbraith

Born August 9, 1892, in Newport, Rhode Island. Son of Judge Henry G. and Mabel Marquand Ward. Educated Allen School, New York City; St. George's School, Newport, and Princeton University, Class of 1915. Joined American Field Service, December 2, 1916; attached Vosges Detachment to June 2, 1917. Returned to America. Enlisted U. S. Infantry, September, 103d Regiment. Plattsburg Camp, and Camp Upton. To France with 77th Division, 306th Regiment. Promoted to Corporal and Sergeant. Died of pneumonia, December 17, 1918, at Château Vilain. Buried Château Vilain, Haute-Marne.

GALBRAITH WARD, a great great grandson of Major-General Artemas Ward, was known at St. George's School, where he prepared for Princeton, as a shy and reserved youngster who expressed himself more easily in writing than in conversation. There already he showed the firmness of conviction and steadiness of purpose that are so well illustrated by his refusal to accept a commission not won in the field. Few of us are capable of seeing our way so clearly and steadily and fewer still would have the spirit to refuse advancement because of an ideal conception of duty. But Ward saw with the clear eyes of a little child and acted with a man's courage.

A Princeton friend writes affectionately of him, "He was the most genuine, unaffected man I knew. He had never found himself entirely and yet he had a mind that I know would have accomplished things worth while when he turned to the work that attracted him. I had many letters from him after he had left Plattsburg and through them all there ran the note of absolute honesty of spirit which was so characteristic of him. He had no thought of doing anything heroic. There was nothing quixotic in his courage. And it did take cold courage to do what he did --- he wrote me that he had acted knowing from his own observation what the job of a private soldier was in the trenches. He wrote me in the same vein after he had refused a commission at Upton --- that he was determined to win his promotion in active service."

In December, 1916, Ward sailed for France in the Field Service where he served at the front in the Vosges Detachment. In June, 1917, he returned to the United States, spending a short time at Plattsburgh and going to Camp Upton in September where he remained until the 77th Division to which he was attached sailed for England. He became corporal, sergeant, and finally chief of the battalion intelligence and scouting organization under Major Freeman, 306th Infantry, which position he held during the fighting on the Vesle and the Aisne, through the Argonne and the advance to the Meuse.

His work was marked by an inflexible determination to give all,---the same indomitable spirit that had already been shown to be a marked characteristic of his and which was later to cause his death. The incident related in the following citation issued from the Headquarters of the 77th Division we must regard as typical ,of the spirit that moved him: "On the night of November 2-3, 1918, while leading a detachment through a heavily shelled swamp between Thenorgues and Harricourt, this soldier showed an utter disregard for his own safety in directing and helping the men under him to find shelter, and then walked over one hundred yards through shell fire to the rescue of a soldier of the 304th Machine Gun Battalion, who had been severely wounded, bringing him to a place of safety."

During the last days of the war he drew heavily on his reserve of strength, flatly refusing to go back to a hospital even when, as his Lieutenant wrote, "he was too sick to go on." On December 17, 1918, he died of pneumonia---caused by exposure and fatigue.

Ward's battalion commander, Major John R. P. Freeman, who was with him from the early days at Camp Upton, wrote of him "Quiet, modest, and unassuming, capable and trustworthy; and utterly fearless . . . . . He gave the best that was in him; he gave more because the terrific strain of the Argonne had completely undermined his health and still he kept on until our work was done, when the doctor ordered him to the hospital where he died.

"He was fine and clean and I'm very, very sorry that he has gone."

• Tribute from the Memorial Volume of the American Field Service, 1921