| Honorific Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| The Earl of Dudley | |
| Birth Name: | William Ward |
| Birth Date: | 27 March 1817 |
| Birth Place: | Edwardstone, Boxford, Suffolk |
| Alma Mater: | Christ Church, Oxford Trinity College, Oxford |
| Parents: | William Ward, 10th Baron Ward Amelia Pillans |
| Spouse: | |
| Children: | 7, including William Ward, 2nd Earl of Dudley John Hubert Ward |
William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley (27 March 1817 – 7 May 1885), known as The Lord Ward from 1835 to 1860, was a British landowner and benefactor.
Ward was born on 27 March 1817 at Edwardstone, Boxford, Suffolk, England, the son of William Ward, 10th Baron Ward. His mother was Amelia, daughter of William Cooch Pillans.[1]
He was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford and Trinity College, Oxford. He played first-class cricket for Oxford University Cricket Club between 1838 and 1842.[2]
On 6 December 1835, he inherited the title of Lord Ward, when he became the 11th Baron Ward.[3] His inheritance included Himley Hall and the ruins of Dudley Castle. In 1837 his trustees purchased the Witley Court estate in Worcestershire from Thomas Foley, 4th Baron Foley.
Ward never held any political office,[4] but served as Colonel Commander of the Worcestershire Yeomanry in 1854.[4]
Between 1859 and 1877 Ward paid for the entire refacing and restoration of Worcester Cathedral[5] and there is a monument to him in the cathedral. In 1868 he defrayed one third of the cost of the tower and spire of St John the Baptist's Church at Hagley.[5] He was also a trustee of the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery.
In 1860, the earldom held by his kinsman was revived when he was created Viscount Ednam, of Ednam in the County of Roxburgh, and Earl of Dudley, of Dudley Castle in the County of Stafford.
Lord Dudley married, firstly, Selina Constance, daughter of Hubert de Burgh, on 24 April 1851. She died on 14 November of the same year, aged only 22. There were no children from this marriage.
He married, secondly, Georgina Elisabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Moncreiffe, 7th Baronet, and Lady Louisa Hay-Drummond, on 21 November 1865. His sister-in-law Harriet Moncreiffe, who a few years later, as Lady Mordaunt, became embroiled in a sensational divorce case, referred to him as "frizzle wig".[6] Together, William and Georgina were the parents of six sons and one daughter:
He owned 25,000 acres, with most of his income coming from 5,000 acres in Staffordshire.[12]
Ward died on 7 May 1885, aged 68, at Dudley House, Park Lane, Mayfair, in London, and was originally buried in a marble sarcophagus in the crypt of Saint Michael and All Angels Church in Great Witley, Worcestershire. His remains were later moved to Worcester Cathedral, where a funerary monument to him was erected. The Countess of Dudley survived her husband by over forty years and died in February 1929 at her home at Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park[13] at the age of 82, having spent over half her life as a widow.