2021 Recipient – Lieutenant (Ret’d) Peter Ward, RCN(R)

Lieutenant (Ret’d) Peter Ward, RCN(R)  is presented the 2021 Admirals’ Medal by Naval Association Director of Naval Affairs, Tim Addison and Rear-Admiral (Ret’d) Casper Donovan, RCN

At the Naval Association of Canada’s Monthly Speaker’s Evening on 4 October 2021 we were very fortunate to have retired naval officer and journalist, Mr Peter Ward as our guest speaker. Peter regaled Naval Association members and other invited guests with his story of how he and four other colleagues developed and executed a cunning plan in 1964 to save Canada’s Ceremonial Flagship HMCS HAIDA from the scrapheap. Peter was awarded the Admirals’ Medal for 2021 for his foresight and heroic efforts. Peter is the first to be recognized since the transfer of responsibility for the Medal to the NAC. He was formally presented the Medal at a ceremony on 28 April 2022 at the Mayfair Theatre in Ottawa, ON.

The citation for Peter’s award reads as follows:

2021 – Lieutenant Peter Ward, CD, RCN(R) (Ret’d)

Lieutenant Peter Ward is an acclaimed retired journalist, military editor, war correspondent, broadcaster, author and wine columnist who served as a Public Information Officer with the Naval Reserve Division HMCS York (1962-1978). Recipient of the Peacekeeping Medal for deployments to Cyprus and the Vietnam Decoration for seeing action as an embedded journalist and side gunner with a US Army helicopter unit, his poignant photography and objective reporting from the front lines were published in major newspapers worldwide. As one of the original five founding members of HAIDA Inc, he is being recognized inter alia for his critical role in the acquisition and the preservation of HMCS Haida, a famous Second World War Tribal-class destroyer, now a National Historical Site and the ceremonial Flagship for the Royal Canadian Navy, berthed in Hamilton, Ontario.