1830 was promoted to a first lieutenancy in the royal horse artillery. He obtained a company on 5 June 1841, and was nominated lieutenant-colonel on 17 Feb. 1854. He commanded the siege train before Sebastopol until incapacitated by fever three weeks before the fall of the fortress; and on the conclusion of the war received, on 29 Aug. 1857, the rank of colonel, taking command of the artillery at Aldershot. In 1859, when war with France seemed imminent, he was ordered to superintend the rearmament of Malta. In 1861 he was appointed to command the artillery in the south-west district, and in 1864 was selected to command the Woolwich district. While in command of this district an explosion at Erith destroyed the river wall and threatened to flood the country to Camberwell, and burst the great sewers just completed. In less than an hour Warde had taken measures which averted the catastrophe. He received the thanks of government, and, on resigning the command in 1869, was appointed K.C.B. He attained the rank of major-general on 27 Feb. 1866, of colonel commandant on 29 March 1873, of lieutenant-general on 17 Nov. 1878, and of general on 1 Oct. 1877. He died at Brighton on 11 June 1884. On 24 Aug. 1843 he married Jane (d. 1895), eldest daughter of Charles Lane, rector of Wrotham and rural dean of Shoreham, Kent. By her he had four sons and three daughters (Times, 14 June 1881; Army Lists; Foster, Baronetage and Knightage).
[Gent. Mag. 1835, ii. 207; Burke's Landed Gentry; Schomburgk's Hist. of Barbados, 1848, pp. 413–25.]
WARDE, JAMES PRESCOTT (1792–1840), actor, born in the west of England in 1792, was son of J. Prescott. A cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich (15 Sept. 1807), and a second-lieutenant in the royal artillery (December 1809), he devoted himself to the stage, and was superseded for ‘absence without leave’ (1 April 1815). He adopted the name of Warde. His first recorded appearance was at Bath on 28 Dec. 1813 as Achmet in Browne's tragedy of ‘Barbarossa,’ a part created by Mossop. Genest says of him at this date: ‘He had not been long on the stage—he made a gradual improvement in his acting—and before he left Bath was deservedly a great favourite with the audience’ (Genest, viii. 440). During 1814 he played at Bath Faulkland in the ‘Rivals’ (5 March) and Harry Dornton in Holcroft's ‘Road to Ruin’ (17 April); and on 10 Dec. was ‘very good’ in the title-rôle of an improved version of Pocock's ‘John of Paris.’ At Christmas he was Aladdin in a pantomime, ‘but he was too good an actor to play in such a piece’ (ib. 491). In 1815 he was on 3 Jan. Laertes to the Hamlet of Macready. Ten days later he took his benefit as Fitzharding in Tobin's ‘Curfew,’ acting ‘very well.’ On 1 April he was the original Fitz-James in the ‘Lady of the Lake.’ As Dorilas in Hill's ‘Merope’ (1 Jan.) he overdressed the part. During 1816 he was on 18 Jan. Orlando in ‘As you like it,’ and on 8 Feb. Jaffier in ‘Venice Preserved,’ on 5 Oct. Joseph Surface, and on 14 Dec. Dudley in Cumberland's ‘West Indian.’
Next year he was seen as Doricourt in the ‘Belle's Stratagem’ (1 Nov.), was very good as Biron in Southerne and Garrick's ‘Isabella,’ and played during December Standard in a revival of Farquhar's ‘Constant Couple,’ Macduff, and Philaster. During January and February 1818 he appeared as Shylock, Hotspur, Alonzo in ‘Pizarro,’ Beverley, Belmour, and Durimel in Roberdeau's ‘Point of Honour.’ On 15 April he was seen as Rob Roy (first time in Bath), one of his best parts. ‘Rob Roy,’ says Genest, ‘did great things for the treasury.’ During the remainder of that season, which closed with May, he played Bevil in Steele's ‘Conscious Lovers,’ Lord Townly in the ‘Provoked Husband,’ and also Romeo and the Stranger to the Juliet and Mrs. Haller of Miss O'Neill. Others of Warde's leading parts at Bath, where he was seen at his best, were George Barnwell, Young Norval, Rolla, Inkle, Edgar, Posthumus, Florizel, Woodville in Lee's ‘Chapter of Accidents,’ and numerous other parts in forgotten plays. Cole says that Warde and Conway each had a patronising dowager in the city, who sat in opposite stage-boxes and led the applause for their respective protégés (Life of Charles Kean, 1859, i. 94).
Warde made his first appearance in London at the Haymarket on 17 July 1818 as Leon in Fletcher's ‘Rule a Wife and have a Wife.’ His choice of part was judicious, and he was well received. He was less successful as Shylock eleven days later, but was good as the Duke in Tobin's ‘Honeymoon’ (for his benefit on 11 Sept.). Next season he opened as Leon (26 July), and was seen as Faulkland, Don Felix in Centlivre's ‘Wonder,’ Valmont in ‘Foundling of the Forest’ (his benefit on 28 Aug.), Inkle, and the Stranger. From 1820 Warde's name disappears completely from the London bills, nor was he seen again at Bath until 1823, and then but rarely. He reappears on the London stage in the autumn of 1825, when he was engaged at Covent Garden as second lead to Charles Kemble, and was seen as Brutus (26 Sept.), Rob Roy, Iago
