John Ward (fl. c. 1840 - 1873) was a hydrographic survey officer of the British Royal Navy. Ward joined the Royal Navy in 1840. His first service was in the Bahamas and the West Indies. In 1848 he passed the naval officers exam and in 1850 was promoted to Lieutenant. From 1855 he worked on the Scotland coast completing a detailed survey under Captain H. C. Otter. In 1858, he was promoted to Commander assigned to the H.M.S. Actaon and sent to complete the survey of the China coast and the waters around Japan made during the Second Opium War (1856 - 1860). This position was initially held by Commander William Thornton Bate (January 31, 1818 - December 29, 1857), who was killed in the Second Opium War's Battle of Canton (1857). Bate's second, Lieutenant Chares Bullock (1826 - 1904), took interim command of the survey, to be replaced with Ward in 1858. From 1858 to 1861, Ward and Bullock completed meticulous surveys ranging from Hong Kong to Manchuria and from the Yangtze River to Japan. In 1864 he was promoted to command the Riflemen, but by 1866, returned to England having received an injury. He was nonetheless not retired from active service until 1873.