 Ward bowled frequently for Hampshire in his later seasons, picking up nineteen wickets for the team, including a best bowling analysis of 4–17 against Sussex in July 1896.Hampshire finished ninth in the 1897 County Championship table, with a negative finishing percentage.Ward died just seventeen days after his final County Cricket match, still in full flow of the 1897 cricket season, at the age of 24, possibly a club record for the shortest amount of time between an individual's final first-class fixture and their death.