Basil Robert Ward [commonly known as Basil Ward] was born in Wellington, New Zealand on 22 July 1902. and was articled to J. A. Louis Hay in Napier. In 1924, with fellow New Zealand architect Amyas Connell (1901-1980), he moved to London where they both attended the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College, London. In 1926 [or 1927 - sources differ] Ward was awarded the Henry Jarvis Studentship (second prize Rome Scholarship) and spent a period of time in Italy. Between 1929 and 1931 he carried out works for the Government of Burma. In 1932 he went into partnership Connell, forming the London-based architectural practice Connell & Ward. They were joined in May 1934* [or 1933 - sources differ] by Colin Anderson Lucas (1906-1984) and the firm was renamed Connell, Ward & Lucas. The practice was known for it uncompromising advocacy of the International Modernist style. With the approach of World War Two in 1939, the partnership was dissolved.
For the first four years of the war Ward was a technical officer in the Research and Experiments Department of the Ministry of Home Security. Subsequently he served as lieutenant-commander in Naval Intelligence with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (Special Branch).
In 1945, with fellow New Zealander, Keith Day Pearce Murray (1892–1981), Ward formed a new architectural practice, Murray, Ward & Partners. The partnership appears to have been short-lived as by 1950 Murray,with with Charles Stanley White (1893-1966), with whom he had been in partnership in the 1930s, formed a partnership with Stanley Churchill Ramsey (1882-1968) which operated as Ramsey, Murray & White [Ward's name did not appear in the title of the practice]. In 1955 Ward the partnership which operated as Ramsay, Murray, White & Ward. They designed numerous industrial and office buildings, including the Hong Kong air terminal and the British European Airways engineering base in London airport.
From 1946 to 1952 Ward was also professor of architecture at the Royal College of Art in London, and, from 1953 to 1956, first Lethaby professor of architecture at the college. Following his retirement from practice in the mid-1960s, he taught at Manchester Polytechnic and Lancaster University. He died in Kendal, Cumbria in 1976
Bell, Jonathan; Gibberd, Matt; and Hill, Albert. The Modern House. London: Artifice Books on Architecture, 2015.
Brunskill, Charlotte, et al. Concrete and controversy: the architecture of Connell Ward and Lucas: material from the Dennis Sharp Archive. London: Paul Mellon Centre, 2015
Powers, Alan. Modern. The Modern Movement in Britain. London: Merrell, 2005
Sharp, Dennis and Rendel, Sally. Connell Ward and Lucas: Modern movement architects in England 1929–1939. London: Frances Lincoln, 2008