In April 1885 Commissariat and Transport Staff officers were given honorary military rank and Ward also became a Captain. He was with Sir Garnet Wolseley's expedition up the Nile to recapture Khartoum. In December 1885 he was promoted to Assistant Commissary-General and Major. In December 1888 the department underwent yet another change, becoming the Army Service Corps, with its officers now holding full military rank. He was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in June 1890. He went on the Ashanti Expedition in West Africa in 1895–6. Ward returned to England and was promoted to Brevet Colonel in March 1898.
