title: John Ward (Conservative politician)
text: # John Ward (Conservative politician)
  
  Sir John Devereux Ward CBE (8 March 1925 – 26 June 2010) was a British Conservative Party politician.
  
  ## Early life
  
  Trained as a civil and a structural engineer, he rose to become managing director of the construction firm Taylor Woodrow.
  
  ## Parliamentary career
  
  After being beaten at Portsmouth North in October 1974, Ward served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Poole from 1979, until his retirement in 1997. He was succeeded by Robert Syms.
  
  After the 1988 BDH fire and explosion in Poole, he called on the government to set up a public inquiry into the incident.
  
  From 1994 until the 1997 General Election, Ward was the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, John Major. As such, he did not contribute in any debates during the last three years of his parliamentary career. Following Major's resignation as Prime Minister in May 1997, Ward was knighted in the 1997 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours.
  
  ## Death
  
  Ward died suddenly on 26 June 2010 at the age of 85.
  
  