Cirrus@Austlit

Actor, comedian, theatrical entrepreneur.

Hugh Joseph Ward joined a minstrel troupe at age 16 and over the next 12 years learned his trade touring with various variety and dramatic companies. He first toured Australia with Charles H. Hoyt (1899-1903) and returned to the region with his own company in 1906 (in partnership with George Willoughby) and again in 1908. In 1913, two years after joining J.C. Williamson's, Ward became the Firm's managing director. He established Hugh J. Ward Theatres Ltd in 1922 and operated it in partnership with the Fullers (as Fuller-Ward). Ward, who was heavily involved in philanthropy during the last decades of his life retired in 1926 and died in Sydney of a coronary occlusion some 15 years later.