David Michael Ward, known as 'Mike', was warden of St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital and, before that, a consultant ophthalmologist at Torbay Hospital, Torquay. He was born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, and studied medicine at Birmingham, qualifying MB ChB in 1955. He carried out his National Service in Cyprus and Aqaba, and then briefly became a GP. Deciding to become an ophthalmologist, he was a senior registrar in Sheffield Royal Infirmary and at Bristol Eye Hospital. He then spent a year in Kingston, Jamaica. He returned to the UK and was appointed as a consultant at Torbay Hospital, where he remained for 25 years. From 1990 to 1995, he was chief surgeon and warden of St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital, a period which included the first Gulf War. As part of his role, he raised large amounts of money for the hospital, and lectured extensively abroad. Mike Ward died from cancer of the prostate on 1 January 2012 and was survived by his wife Sonia, whom he married in 1963, and their two children.