Stephen Ward
Encyclopedia
Stephen Thomas Ward was an osteopath and artist who became notorious as one of the central figures in the 1963 Profumo affair
, a British
public scandal which profoundly affected the ruling Conservative Party
government. Ward introduced the married British cabinet minister and MP John Profumo
to a showgirl
named Christine Keeler
at a house party hosted at Lord Astor's country home, Cliveden
, in the summer of 1961. Profumo's subsequent sexual relationship with Keeler and his false statement to the House of Commons regarding its nature led to Profumo's resignation.
Following the Profumo scandal, Ward was charged with living off the profits of prostitution
("immoral earnings"). Ward committed suicide
by overdosing on sleeping tablets on the last day of the trial.
of Rochester Cathedral
. He was educated at Highgate School
in London. In 1920 the family moved to Torquay
when Ward's father became Vicar of St. Matthias.
Ward was sent as a boarder at Canford School
, a public school in Dorset
. He recalled being made a scapegoat
for a serious assault on a fellow boarder, which a master later admitted Ward had clearly not been responsible for. This experience marked the young man. His father wanted him to go to university but at 17 moved to London instead. He found work as a carpet salesman in Houndsditch. In 1929 he moved to Hamburg and was employed as a translator in the German branch of Shell
.
In 1932 Ward returned to London where he sold chests of Indian tea and subscriptions to The Spectator
magazine. However, in 1934 he was persuaded by his mother to study at the Kirksville College of Osteopathy and Surgery in Missouri. Journalist Phillip Knightley
has claimed that "Ward helped deliver babies at remote farms, did surgery on kitchen tables, set bones broken during tornadoes and gave typhoid shots after floods devastated the area around the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers."
Ward was greatly impressed by the United States. He later commented: "I loved America and Americans, a warm-hearted, open and dynamic people. Their kindness and hospitality made me feel ashamed of the standoffish way the British treat people."
In 1940 Ward set-up as an osteopath in Torquay. The following year he volunteered for the Royal Army Medical Corps
(RAMC) but was rejected as they did not recognise his American qualifications. He therefore joined the Royal Armoured Corps
at Bovington. Ward was soon treating officers for muscle injuries and back trouble, until the actual RAMC Medical Officer lodged a complaint. Ward was court-martialled and berated the Army for failing to recognise Osteopathy. The Army appeased him by commissioning him as an officer ‘stretcher bearer’ in the RAMC.
In March 1944 Captain Ward was posted to India. Later that year he treated Gandhi for headaches and a stiff neck. Ward was impressed with Gandhi: "Although much of his policy was opposed to that of my own country. I knew that when I was with him I was in the presence of greatness, and my encounter with him was certainly the most important meeting of my life."
After the Second World War Ward worked for the Osteopathic Association Clinic in Dorset Square. His first private patient was Averell Harriman, after taking a call at the clinic that asked for the best ‘Osteopath in London’: Ward replied without hesitation, “that would be Stephen Ward”. It was not long before other famous people such as Winston Churchill
, Duncan Sandys
, Feliks Topolski
, Ava Gardner
, Mary Martin
and Mel Ferrer
became his patients. This enabled him to set up his own clinic in Cavendish Square, on the fringe of Harley Street
.
Over the next few years he gained several other important patients. This included Lord Astor, who allowed him the use of a cottage on his Cliveden
Estate. Other friends included Daily Telegraph editor Colin Coote
, MI5 head Roger Hollis
, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures Anthony Blunt
, Conservative MP Geoffrey Nicholson, infamous slumlord Peter Rachman
, and the actor Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
On 27 July 1949, Ward married Patricia Mary Baines, a fashion model, at Marylebone Register Office. The relationship was not a success and after six weeks she moved out of Ward's flat at Cavendish Square. Ward used his social skills and his job as an osteopath to meet a number of rich and powerful members of society. He said. "I know a lot of very important people and am often received in some of the most famous homes in the country. Sir Winston Churchill
and many leading politicians have been among my patients".
As a portrait artist, he had members of the Royal Family
and politicians sit for him, including The Duke of Edinburgh, The Duke
and Duchess of Kent and the Earl of Snowdon
.
During the late 1940s Ward frequented the notorious Thursday Club, with a group of hard-drinking friends from top London society, including Prince Philip, the Marquess of Milford Haven
and photographers Antony Beauchamp and Baron Nahum.
In her autobiography Dors by Diana, the actress Diana Dors
mentioned the filming of the 1951 comedy Lady Godiva Rides Again
, in which she starred. During filming in Folkestone in Kent Miss Dors met Jane Hart, a young starlet who had a small part in the film. Dors wrote that Jane Hart's boyfriend then was Stephen Ward. Dors did not take to him when she met him during filming, describing him as the "slick society doctor among the jet set".
Ruth Ellis
, the last woman to be hanged in the UK (in 1955), had a walk-on part in the same film. It is claimed that Ruth Ellis was being run by Stephen Ward, a decade before his name became public in the Profumo affair
.
named Christine Keeler
, moved into Ward’s Wimpole Mews flat, and had a platonic
relationship with Ward. Ward also lived with a young woman named Mandy Rice-Davies
, to whom Ward at one time proposed marriage. In July 1961 Ward held a pool party at Cliveden
, the Buckinghamshire
mansion owned by Viscount Astor
. At the party Ward introduced Keeler to John Profumo
, the British Secretary of State for War
. Profumo began having sexual relations with Keeler, unaware that she might also have been having sexual relations with Yevgeni Ivanov, a naval attaché at the embassy of the Soviet Union
. Since Ward was co-operating with MI5
to entrap Ivanov, Profumo's affair quickly become known in establishment circles. Rumours about Profumo's relationship with Keeler became public in 1962, precipitated by one of Keeler's former lovers, Johnny Edgecombe
, attempting to gain access to Ward's flat where Keeler was staying by shooting at the door on 14 December. Edgecombe was arrested, and Keeler's failure to appear at his trial in March 1963 gave the Press the opportunity they needed to bring the rumours out into the public domain.
After an initial statement of denial to the House Commons, Profumo was forced to admit that he had lied, and had no alternative but to resign (June 1963) from the government, the Privy Council
, and his Parliamentary seat
. In the fallout of the Profumo scandal Ward was arrested in June 1963 in Watford
and taken to Marylebone
Lane police station. He was charged: ‘That he, being a man, did on diverse dates between January 1961 and 8 June 1963, knowingly live wholly or in part on the earning of prostitution
... contrary to... the Sexual Offences Act 1956
.’ Other charges of procuring prostitutes
followed, and at Marylebone Magistrate's Court he was committed for trial at the Old Bailey
, beginning on 22 July. Soon after the trial began MI5 denied that Ward had informed them of Profumo's affair.
Some of those involved in the Profumo affair, such as Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, were called as witnesses at the trial. Also giving evidence were prostitutes Ronna Ricardo and Vickie Barrett. In the course of the trial Ricardo withdrew her allegations against Ward of procuring, and Barrett's similar allegations were shown by the defence to be specious. Following a harsh attack on his character in the closing speech of the prosecuting counsel, Mervyn Griffith-Jones
, Ward took an overdose of sleeping tablets on the night before the last day of the trial, and was found in a coma
the next morning. Since there were no further instructions required to be given by the defendant to his own counsel, the judge ruled that the trial would proceed in the defendant's absence, and after summing up, he sent the jury to deliberate. Ward was still in a coma on Wednesday 31 July, when the jury reached their verdict of guilty of the charge of living on the immoral earnings of Keeler and Rice-Davies. The charges of procuring (i.e. of being a pimp
) were rejected. The trial was then adjourned until such time as Ward might be fit to return to court. Three days later, on Saturday 3 August, Ward died in St Stephen's Hospital. On Monday 5 August the trial was formally closed with no sentence pronounced. In his book on the trial, Ludovic Kennedy
considers the guilty verdict to be a miscarriage of justice, and points out that Keeler received more money from Ward than he did from her, so that rather than Ward living on her earnings it was she living on his.
Shortly after Ward's death, a pornographer named Freddie Reid mounted an exhibition of Ward's pictures, which was alleged to include compromising pictures of well-known individuals. However, Reid held a private viewing and sold many of the pictures before they were made public. In her 2001 autobiography
, Keeler claimed, without supporting evidence, that the MI5 chief Roger Hollis
was a Soviet spy and that Ward ran a spy ring which included Hollis and Sir Anthony Blunt
.
in the 1989 film Scandal, which told the story of the Profumo affair. He is mentioned several times (as "Stephen") in the film's theme song, "Nothing Has Been Proved
", written by The Pet Shop Boys and sung by Dusty Springfield
, which became a Top 20 hit in the UK. Ward also appears as a character in Anthony Frewin's 1997
novel London Blues
, was the basis of John Lawton's character Patrick Fitzpatrick in his 1998 novel A Little White Death. His life was the subject for a music theatre piece "That Man Stephen Ward" (2006-7) by the British composer Thomas Hyde.
Profumo Affair
The Profumo Affair was a 1963 British political scandal named after John Profumo, Secretary of State for War. His affair with Christine Keeler, the reputed mistress of an alleged Russian spy, followed by lying in the House of Commons when he was questioned about it, forced the resignation of...
, a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
public scandal which profoundly affected the ruling Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
government. Ward introduced the married British cabinet minister and MP John Profumo
John Profumo
Brigadier John Dennis Profumo, 5th Baron Profumo CBE , informally known as Jack Profumo , was a British politician. His title, 5th Baron, which he did not use, was Italian. Although Profumo held an increasingly responsible series of political posts in the 1950s, he is best known today for his...
to a showgirl
Showgirl
A showgirl is a dancer or performer in a stage entertainment show. Showgirl is also often used as a term for a promotional model in trade fairs and car shows, etc...
named Christine Keeler
Christine Keeler
Christine Margaret Keeler is an English former model and showgirl. Her involvement with a British government minister discredited the Conservative government of Harold Macmillan in 1963, in what is known as the Profumo Affair....
at a house party hosted at Lord Astor's country home, Cliveden
Cliveden
Cliveden is an Italianate mansion and estate at Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England. Set on banks above the River Thames, its grounds slope down to the river. The site has been home to an Earl, two Dukes, a Prince of Wales and the Viscounts Astor....
, in the summer of 1961. Profumo's subsequent sexual relationship with Keeler and his false statement to the House of Commons regarding its nature led to Profumo's resignation.
Following the Profumo scandal, Ward was charged with living off the profits of prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
("immoral earnings"). Ward committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
by overdosing on sleeping tablets on the last day of the trial.
Osteopath and portrait painter
Ward was the son of Arthur Evelyn Ward, CanonCanon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
of Rochester Cathedral
Rochester Cathedral
Rochester Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Norman church in Rochester, Kent. The bishopric is second oldest in England after Canterbury...
. He was educated at Highgate School
Highgate School
-Notable members of staff and governing body:* John Ireton, brother of Henry Ireton, Cromwellian General* 1st Earl of Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice, owner of Kenwood, noted for judgment finding contracts for slavery unenforceable in English law* T. S...
in London. In 1920 the family moved to Torquay
Torquay
Torquay is a town in the unitary authority area of Torbay and ceremonial county of Devon, England. It lies south of Exeter along the A380 on the north of Torbay, north-east of Plymouth and adjoins the neighbouring town of Paignton on the west of the bay. Torquay’s population of 63,998 during the...
when Ward's father became Vicar of St. Matthias.
Ward was sent as a boarder at Canford School
Canford School
Canford School is a coeducational independent school for both day and boarding pupils, in the village of Canford Magna, near to the market town of Wimborne Minster in Dorset, in South West England. The school was founded in 1923. There are approximately 600 pupils at Canford, organised into houses...
, a public school in Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
. He recalled being made a scapegoat
Scapegoat
Scapegoating is the practice of singling out any party for unmerited negative treatment or blame. Scapegoating may be conducted by individuals against individuals , individuals against groups , groups against individuals , and groups against groups Scapegoating is the practice of singling out any...
for a serious assault on a fellow boarder, which a master later admitted Ward had clearly not been responsible for. This experience marked the young man. His father wanted him to go to university but at 17 moved to London instead. He found work as a carpet salesman in Houndsditch. In 1929 he moved to Hamburg and was employed as a translator in the German branch of Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...
.
In 1932 Ward returned to London where he sold chests of Indian tea and subscriptions to The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
magazine. However, in 1934 he was persuaded by his mother to study at the Kirksville College of Osteopathy and Surgery in Missouri. Journalist Phillip Knightley
Phillip Knightley
Phillip Knightley is a journalist, critic, and non-fiction author, visiting Professor of Journalism at the University of Lincoln, England, and media commentator on the intelligence services and propaganda.-Biography:...
has claimed that "Ward helped deliver babies at remote farms, did surgery on kitchen tables, set bones broken during tornadoes and gave typhoid shots after floods devastated the area around the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers."
Ward was greatly impressed by the United States. He later commented: "I loved America and Americans, a warm-hearted, open and dynamic people. Their kindness and hospitality made me feel ashamed of the standoffish way the British treat people."
In 1940 Ward set-up as an osteopath in Torquay. The following year he volunteered for the Royal Army Medical Corps
Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...
(RAMC) but was rejected as they did not recognise his American qualifications. He therefore joined the Royal Armoured Corps
Royal Armoured Corps
The Royal Armoured Corps is currently a collection of ten regular regiments, mostly converted from old horse cavalry regiments, and four Yeomanry regiments of the Territorial Army...
at Bovington. Ward was soon treating officers for muscle injuries and back trouble, until the actual RAMC Medical Officer lodged a complaint. Ward was court-martialled and berated the Army for failing to recognise Osteopathy. The Army appeased him by commissioning him as an officer ‘stretcher bearer’ in the RAMC.
In March 1944 Captain Ward was posted to India. Later that year he treated Gandhi for headaches and a stiff neck. Ward was impressed with Gandhi: "Although much of his policy was opposed to that of my own country. I knew that when I was with him I was in the presence of greatness, and my encounter with him was certainly the most important meeting of my life."
After the Second World War Ward worked for the Osteopathic Association Clinic in Dorset Square. His first private patient was Averell Harriman, after taking a call at the clinic that asked for the best ‘Osteopath in London’: Ward replied without hesitation, “that would be Stephen Ward”. It was not long before other famous people such as Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, Duncan Sandys
Duncan Sandys
Edwin Duncan Sandys, Baron Duncan-Sandys CH PC was a British politician and a minister in successive Conservative governments in the 1950s and 1960s...
, Feliks Topolski
Feliks Topolski
Feliks Topolski RA was a Polish-born British expressionist painter and draughtsman.- Life :Felix Topolski was born on 14 August 1907 in Warsaw...
, Ava Gardner
Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner was an American actress.She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers . She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, considered one of the most beautiful women of her day...
, Mary Martin
Mary Martin
Mary Virginia Martin was an American actress and singer. She originated many roles over her career including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria in The Sound of Music. She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989...
and Mel Ferrer
Mel Ferrer
Mel Ferrer was an American actor, film director and film producer.-Early life:Ferrer was born Melchor Gastón Ferrer in Elberon, New Jersey, of Catalan and Irish descent. His father, Dr. José María Ferrer , was born in Cuba, was an authority on pneumonia and served as chief of staff of St....
became his patients. This enabled him to set up his own clinic in Cavendish Square, on the fringe of Harley Street
Harley Street
Harley Street is a street in the City of Westminster in London, England which has been noted since the 19th century for its large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery.- Overview :...
.
Over the next few years he gained several other important patients. This included Lord Astor, who allowed him the use of a cottage on his Cliveden
Cliveden
Cliveden is an Italianate mansion and estate at Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England. Set on banks above the River Thames, its grounds slope down to the river. The site has been home to an Earl, two Dukes, a Prince of Wales and the Viscounts Astor....
Estate. Other friends included Daily Telegraph editor Colin Coote
Colin Coote
Sir Colin Reith Coote DSO was a British journalist and Liberal politician. For fourteen years he was the editor of the Daily Telegraph.-Biography:...
, MI5 head Roger Hollis
Roger Hollis
Sir Roger Henry Hollis, KBE, CB was a British journalist and secret-service agent, who was Director General of MI5 from 1956 to 1965.-Early years:...
, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures Anthony Blunt
Anthony Blunt
Anthony Frederick Blunt , was a British art historian who was exposed as a Soviet spy late in his life.Blunt was Professor of the History of Art at the University of London, director of the Courtauld Institute of Art, Surveyor of the King's Pictures and London...
, Conservative MP Geoffrey Nicholson, infamous slumlord Peter Rachman
Peter Rachman
Peter Rachman was a London landlord in the Notting Hill area in the 1950s and 1960s. He became so notorious for his exploitation of tenants that the word "Rachmanism" entered the OED as a synonym for any greedy, unscrupulous landlord.-Career:Rachman was born Perec Rachman in Lvov, Poland in 1919,...
, and the actor Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Douglas Elton Fairbanks, Jr. KBE was an American actor and a highly decorated naval officer of World War II.-Early life:...
On 27 July 1949, Ward married Patricia Mary Baines, a fashion model, at Marylebone Register Office. The relationship was not a success and after six weeks she moved out of Ward's flat at Cavendish Square. Ward used his social skills and his job as an osteopath to meet a number of rich and powerful members of society. He said. "I know a lot of very important people and am often received in some of the most famous homes in the country. Sir Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
and many leading politicians have been among my patients".
As a portrait artist, he had members of the Royal Family
British Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
and politicians sit for him, including The Duke of Edinburgh, The Duke
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent
The Duke of Kent graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on 29 July 1955 as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Scots Greys, the beginning of a military career that would last over 20 years. He was promoted to captain on 29 July 1961. The Duke of Kent saw service in Hong Kong from 1962–63...
and Duchess of Kent and the Earl of Snowdon
Earl of Snowdon
Earl of Snowdon is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1961, together with the subsidiary title Viscount Linley, of Nymans in the County of Sussex, for Antony Armstrong-Jones, who was then the husband of HRH The Princess Margaret...
.
During the late 1940s Ward frequented the notorious Thursday Club, with a group of hard-drinking friends from top London society, including Prince Philip, the Marquess of Milford Haven
David Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven
David Michael Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven , styled Viscount Alderney before 1921 and Earl of Medina between 1921 and 1938, was the son of the 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven and Countess Nadejda de Torby....
and photographers Antony Beauchamp and Baron Nahum.
Associations with young women
Ward was attracted to pretty young women from lower-income backgrounds. At his trial he stated that he liked "pretty girls," and he claimed that he was "...sensitive to their needs and the stresses of modern living." Ward introduced these attractive young women to the rich and famous, aristocratic, charming and powerful men from the British establishment of the 1950s and early 60s. Ward had a series of girlfriends that included Eunice Bailey, the top Christian Dior model in the 1950s, Margaret Brown and Vickie Martin, who was killed in a car crash in 1955.In her autobiography Dors by Diana, the actress Diana Dors
Diana Dors
Diana Dors was an English actress, born Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon, Wiltshire. Considered the English equivalent of the blonde bombshells of Hollywood, Dors described herself as: "The only sex symbol Britain has produced since Lady Godiva."-Early life:Diana Mary Fluck was born in Swindon,...
mentioned the filming of the 1951 comedy Lady Godiva Rides Again
Lady Godiva Rides Again
Lady Godiva Rides Again is a 1951 British comedy film starring Diana Dors, about a small-town English girl who wins a beauty contest and heads for greater fame. It features Joan Collins in her movie debut as an uncredited beauty contestant...
, in which she starred. During filming in Folkestone in Kent Miss Dors met Jane Hart, a young starlet who had a small part in the film. Dors wrote that Jane Hart's boyfriend then was Stephen Ward. Dors did not take to him when she met him during filming, describing him as the "slick society doctor among the jet set".
Ruth Ellis
Ruth Ellis
Ruth Ellis , née Neilson, was the last woman to be executed in the United Kingdom. She was convicted of the murder of her lover, David Blakely, and hanged at Holloway Prison, London, by Albert Pierrepoint.-Biography:...
, the last woman to be hanged in the UK (in 1955), had a walk-on part in the same film. It is claimed that Ruth Ellis was being run by Stephen Ward, a decade before his name became public in the Profumo affair
Profumo Affair
The Profumo Affair was a 1963 British political scandal named after John Profumo, Secretary of State for War. His affair with Christine Keeler, the reputed mistress of an alleged Russian spy, followed by lying in the House of Commons when he was questioned about it, forced the resignation of...
.
Profumo affair
One of Ward's protégés, a showgirlShowgirl
A showgirl is a dancer or performer in a stage entertainment show. Showgirl is also often used as a term for a promotional model in trade fairs and car shows, etc...
named Christine Keeler
Christine Keeler
Christine Margaret Keeler is an English former model and showgirl. Her involvement with a British government minister discredited the Conservative government of Harold Macmillan in 1963, in what is known as the Profumo Affair....
, moved into Ward’s Wimpole Mews flat, and had a platonic
Platonic love
Platonic love is a chaste and strong type of love that is non-sexual.-Amor Platonicus:The term amor platonicus was coined as early as the 15th century by the Florentine scholar Marsilio Ficino. Platonic love in this original sense of the term is examined in Plato's dialogue the Symposium, which has...
relationship with Ward. Ward also lived with a young woman named Mandy Rice-Davies
Mandy Rice-Davies
Mandy Rice-Davies , is a Welsh former model and showgirl best known for her role in the Profumo affair and her association with Christine Keeler, which discredited the Conservative government of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1963.-Early life:She was born Marilyn Rice-Davies in...
, to whom Ward at one time proposed marriage. In July 1961 Ward held a pool party at Cliveden
Cliveden
Cliveden is an Italianate mansion and estate at Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England. Set on banks above the River Thames, its grounds slope down to the river. The site has been home to an Earl, two Dukes, a Prince of Wales and the Viscounts Astor....
, the Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
mansion owned by Viscount Astor
William Waldorf Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor
William Waldorf Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor was a British businessman and Conservative Party politician and a member of the prominent Astor family.-Biography:...
. At the party Ward introduced Keeler to John Profumo
John Profumo
Brigadier John Dennis Profumo, 5th Baron Profumo CBE , informally known as Jack Profumo , was a British politician. His title, 5th Baron, which he did not use, was Italian. Although Profumo held an increasingly responsible series of political posts in the 1950s, he is best known today for his...
, the British Secretary of State for War
Secretary of State for War
The position of Secretary of State for War, commonly called War Secretary, was a British cabinet-level position, first held by Henry Dundas . In 1801 the post became that of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. The position was re-instated in 1854...
. Profumo began having sexual relations with Keeler, unaware that she might also have been having sexual relations with Yevgeni Ivanov, a naval attaché at the embassy of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Since Ward was co-operating with MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
to entrap Ivanov, Profumo's affair quickly become known in establishment circles. Rumours about Profumo's relationship with Keeler became public in 1962, precipitated by one of Keeler's former lovers, Johnny Edgecombe
Johnny Edgecombe
John Arthur Alexander "Johnny" Edgecombe was a British jazz promoter and criminal, whoseinvolvement with Christine Keeler inadvertently alerted authorities to the Profumo Affair.-Early life:...
, attempting to gain access to Ward's flat where Keeler was staying by shooting at the door on 14 December. Edgecombe was arrested, and Keeler's failure to appear at his trial in March 1963 gave the Press the opportunity they needed to bring the rumours out into the public domain.
After an initial statement of denial to the House Commons, Profumo was forced to admit that he had lied, and had no alternative but to resign (June 1963) from the government, the Privy Council
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
, and his Parliamentary seat
Stratford-on-Avon (UK Parliament constituency)
-By-elections:-Notes and references:...
. In the fallout of the Profumo scandal Ward was arrested in June 1963 in Watford
Watford
Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, situated northwest of central London and within the bounds of the M25 motorway. The borough is separated from Greater London to the south by the urbanised parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District.Watford was created as an urban...
and taken to Marylebone
Marylebone
Marylebone is an affluent inner-city area of central London, located within the City of Westminster. It is sometimes written as St. Marylebone or Mary-le-bone....
Lane police station. He was charged: ‘That he, being a man, did on diverse dates between January 1961 and 8 June 1963, knowingly live wholly or in part on the earning of prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
... contrary to... the Sexual Offences Act 1956
Sexual Offences Act 1956
The Sexual Offences Act 1956 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that consolidated the English criminal law relating to sexual offences between 1957 and 2004. It was mostly repealed by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 which replaced it, but sections 33 to 37 still survive. The 2003 Act...
.’ Other charges of procuring prostitutes
Procuring (prostitution)
Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. Examples of procuring include:*trafficking a prostitute into a country for the purpose of soliciting sex...
followed, and at Marylebone Magistrate's Court he was committed for trial at the Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
, beginning on 22 July. Soon after the trial began MI5 denied that Ward had informed them of Profumo's affair.
Some of those involved in the Profumo affair, such as Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, were called as witnesses at the trial. Also giving evidence were prostitutes Ronna Ricardo and Vickie Barrett. In the course of the trial Ricardo withdrew her allegations against Ward of procuring, and Barrett's similar allegations were shown by the defence to be specious. Following a harsh attack on his character in the closing speech of the prosecuting counsel, Mervyn Griffith-Jones
Mervyn Griffith-Jones
John Mervyn Guthrie Griffith-Jones, CBE MC QC was a British judge and former barrister. He is most famous for leading the prosecution of Penguin Books in the obscenity trial in 1960 following the publication of D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover...
, Ward took an overdose of sleeping tablets on the night before the last day of the trial, and was found in a coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
the next morning. Since there were no further instructions required to be given by the defendant to his own counsel, the judge ruled that the trial would proceed in the defendant's absence, and after summing up, he sent the jury to deliberate. Ward was still in a coma on Wednesday 31 July, when the jury reached their verdict of guilty of the charge of living on the immoral earnings of Keeler and Rice-Davies. The charges of procuring (i.e. of being a pimp
Pimp
A pimp is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The pimp may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing a location where she may engage clients...
) were rejected. The trial was then adjourned until such time as Ward might be fit to return to court. Three days later, on Saturday 3 August, Ward died in St Stephen's Hospital. On Monday 5 August the trial was formally closed with no sentence pronounced. In his book on the trial, Ludovic Kennedy
Ludovic Kennedy
Sir Ludovic Henry Coverley Kennedy was a British journalist, broadcaster, humanist and author best known for re-examining cases such as the Lindbergh kidnapping and the murder convictions of Timothy Evans and Derek Bentley, and for his role in the abolition of the death penalty in the United...
considers the guilty verdict to be a miscarriage of justice, and points out that Keeler received more money from Ward than he did from her, so that rather than Ward living on her earnings it was she living on his.
Shortly after Ward's death, a pornographer named Freddie Reid mounted an exhibition of Ward's pictures, which was alleged to include compromising pictures of well-known individuals. However, Reid held a private viewing and sold many of the pictures before they were made public. In her 2001 autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, Keeler claimed, without supporting evidence, that the MI5 chief Roger Hollis
Roger Hollis
Sir Roger Henry Hollis, KBE, CB was a British journalist and secret-service agent, who was Director General of MI5 from 1956 to 1965.-Early years:...
was a Soviet spy and that Ward ran a spy ring which included Hollis and Sir Anthony Blunt
Anthony Blunt
Anthony Frederick Blunt , was a British art historian who was exposed as a Soviet spy late in his life.Blunt was Professor of the History of Art at the University of London, director of the Courtauld Institute of Art, Surveyor of the King's Pictures and London...
.
Cultural references
Ward was played by the actor John HurtJohn Hurt
John Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor, known for his leading roles as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in The Hit, Stephen Ward in Scandal, Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and An Englishman in New York...
in the 1989 film Scandal, which told the story of the Profumo affair. He is mentioned several times (as "Stephen") in the film's theme song, "Nothing Has Been Proved
Nothing Has Been Proved
"Nothing Has Been Proved" is a song and a single release by British singer Dusty Springfield, produced by the Pet Shop Boys. The song was the second collaboration between Springfield and Pet Shop Boys, following their UK #2 and US #2 hit duet "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" in 1987...
", written by The Pet Shop Boys and sung by Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...
, which became a Top 20 hit in the UK. Ward also appears as a character in Anthony Frewin's 1997
1997 in literature
The year 1997 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Tom Clancy signs a book deal with Pearson Custom Publishing and Penguin Putnam Inc. , giving him US$50 million for the world-English rights to two new books . A second agreement gives him another US$25 million for a...
novel London Blues
London Blues
London Blues is a novel by Anthony Frewin first published in 1997 about Soho in the late 1950s and early 1960s and in particular about the early days of pornographic movie production in Britain...
, was the basis of John Lawton's character Patrick Fitzpatrick in his 1998 novel A Little White Death. His life was the subject for a music theatre piece "That Man Stephen Ward" (2006-7) by the British composer Thomas Hyde.