About David Malcolm Ward
David Malcolm Ward
Born: October 23, 1940 in Sackville, N.B.
Married: January 25, 1964 in Dorchester, N.B.
Died: January 7, 1966 near Hampton, N.B.
David
Malcolm Ward began his career with the Department of Natural Resources
in Sussex where he lived. At the time of his death he was 25 years old
and employed with the Royal Forest Products Ltd. in Penobsquis, N.B. His
training included the scaling of logs (an occupation in the timber
industry where a scaler measures the cut trees to determine the scale
(volume) and quality (grade) of the wood to be used for manufacturing.
When logs are sold, in order to determine the basis for a sale price in a
standard way, the logs are “scaled” which means they are measured,
identified as to species, and deductions for defects assigned to produce
a net volume of merchantable wood.)
On January 7, 1966 David
Malcolm Ward was brutally assaulted with what was described as a blunt
instrument after an argument in the Cambridge area of New Brunswick. He
later died in an ambulance on his way to the hospital. This incident was
investigated by the Sussex RCMP and the Gagetown RCMP jointly and a 28
year old male was taken into custody. David Malcolm Ward died in the
ambulance near Hampton, N.B. as the result of the injuries he received.
**
On January 10, 1966 the suspect in this case was charged with
non-capital murder where he appeared before a magistrate of the Queens
County Court and was remanded to custody. He made no plea in this matter
and the case was set over until January 14, 1966.
On March 2,
1966 the accused was brought back to court where there was a preliminary
hearing held to determine if the was sufficient evidence to proceed
with a trial. The Judge deemed that there was enough evidence to proceed
with trial and the next court date was set for March 22, 1966.
On
April 19, 1966 a jury selection process was commenced and over the next
two days a judge and jury trial was held. The accused was convicted of
lesser and included charge of manslaughter and the jury deliberated for
43 minutes before rendering that decision.
In 1970, according to sources I was in contact with, an unnamed lake was then named Dave Ward Lake in honour of David Ward.
Article from Kings County Record – May 1st, 2025
ATV club unveils memorial to forest ranger killed in 1966
Stone at Dave Ward Lake honours 25-year-old Sussex man who was killed on a logging site almost 60 years ago
Author of the article:
Andrew Bates • Local Journalism Initiative reporter
Published May 01, 2025 Kings County Record • 4 minute read
A memorial at Dave Ward Lake south of Sussex was unveiled by the Sussex Valley All-Terrain Club Saturday in honour of David Malcolm Ward, 25, a forest ranger who was killed in a 1966 homicide. Widow Donna Ward, seen second from right, and Sussex-Three Rivers MLA Tammy Scott-Wallace, second from left, are seen with retired forest rangers Anthony McLaughlin, Jack McKay, Jim McFarlane, Byard Moran and Keith Fletcher. COURTESY OF SUSSEX VALLEY ALL-TERRAIN
The Sussex Valley All-Terrain Club has unveiled a formal memorial at a lake south of Sussex named for a former forest ranger who was the victim of a 1966 homicide.
The ATV club and the province of New Brunswick held a ceremony Saturday, April 26, to dedicate a memorial stone at Dave Ward Lake. Club president Graham Milner, also a Sussex councillor, said the club had developed trails in the area and started looking into the lake’s name.
“I knew the lake was always there,” said Milner, who said he would fish there when he first moved to the area in the late 1970s. “I’d heard all these stories … about being haunted, I wanted to follow up and find what exactly the story was behind it, the truth behind it.”
David Malcolm Ward, born Oct. 23, 1940, in Sackville, was a forest ranger working with the province’s Department of Natural Resources in Sackville, according to a bio on the club’s website. Ward and his wife Donna Ward had married in 1964 and moved to Sussex, where they lived in a house on Floral Avenue.
“Both of them were scout leaders for the Cubs and they were very much a part of the community even though they were only here a short time,” Milner said. “I think he was a very upstanding, respectable young person.”
David Malcolm Ward, 25, was born in Sackville in 1940 and moved to Sussex in 1964, where he worked as a forest ranger for the province. He was the victim of a 1966 homicide while scaling logs for a local company in the Cambridge area, according to a bio written by the Sussex Valley All-Terrain Club. COURTESY OF SUSSEX VALLEY ALL-TERRAIN
Ward, then 25, occasionally took work on the side for a Penobsquis company scaling logs, Milner said. That refers to measuring and grading cut wood before a sale, according to the bio.
On a job in the Cambridge area on Jan. 7, 1966, Ward was assaulted and killed by another logger, according to the bio.
“He was out there scaling logs” when he got in a dispute with another logger, Milner said. “They got in an argument and he hit him in the head.”
A 28-year-old man faced a murder trial that April and was convicted of manslaughter by a jury, the bio said.
Milner said it remained a mystery how the lake was named as Dave Ward Lake, and his belief is a staff member would have added it to maps of the area at some point.
“Back in the day, the mapping wasn’t done as accurate as it is now,” he said. “The local rangers at the time, they all worked with Dave, so they all knew him and they respected him a lot. I assume they just put his name on it … and it stuck.”
Another mystery was tracking down Donna Ward. Now 80, Ward moved back to Sussex in 2014, and Milner said he was able to get in touch through an extended family member.
“She couldn’t believe that someone would do this for her,” Milner said. “She was so appreciative that Dave was being remembered after all these years, because she thought that after he passed away, everything was forgotten, his story was over.”
Ward said she hadn’t known about the lake’s name and it had surprised her when she heard about it from Milner.
“I just wondered, how it all came about and why. It’s been 59 years since David died, so to have everything come up now, it’s been really amazing,” Ward said. “I thought that it was wonderful the work that Graham put into it to get this set up.”
She called Ward an an “amazing young man … very kind and considerate, just wonderful.”
“To this day, I can’t understand why it happened, and why I’m still here,” she said. “He was amazing, very kind-hearted … was very well-liked by everyone, he had just a wonderful personality.”
Ward called the time after her husband’s death “very difficult for me,” saying she moved back to Sackville and worked in different jobs, travelling across Canada while working with the Women’s Institute.
“There was nothing I could do about it, so I had to move on,” she said.
She got a BA with honours and Bachelor of Education at Mount Allison University and a master’s degree at UNB and went into teaching, she said.
Ward said it’s “great to know” people are interested in the facts of Dave Ward’s story and good to see the attendees on Saturday.
“It’s stayed with me all these years, and it was so tragic to have that happen to him,” said Ward, who said she was in the ambulance when he died. “I think of it still, every day, I can’t get it out of my mind.”
The project, which includes a memorial stone as well as a cement base, trail clearing and gravel, cost about $15,000, supported by ATV Club donations and a provincial $5,000 Community Investment Fund grant from Sussex Three-Rivers MLA Tammy Scott-Wallace, Milner said.
“I’ve been working on this for a couple of years now, and it’s finally came to fruition,” Milner said. “I’m so glad we were able to do this for Donna, especially … I wanted her to know that she wasn’t forgotten herself.”
Sussex Valley All-Terrain Club President Graham Milner, right, looks on as Byard Moran speaks at a memorial in honour of David Malcolm Ward, 25, a forest ranger who was killed in a 1966 homicide. COURTESY OF SUSSEX VALLEY ALL-TERRAIN
The ceremony included representation from current and former forest rangers, some of whom worked with or knew David Ward.
That includes Ward’s best man, Byard Moran, who Milner said spoke about “how much it meant to him to have them be a part of his life, it was a touching moment,” Milner said.
Scott-Wallace said that when Milner came to her about the project last year she said it was “something that was important to me.”
She cited her experiences as a former journalist as well as hearing stories from her father, a forest ranger, including about David Ward’s time with the service.
“In time, we forget these stories if we don’t document and share them in some way,” she said. “You can imagine for the family what a special ceremony that was … and also very special for the community,”
Donna Ward called the lake “just beautiful,” saying that the club was putting in a walking trail in so she could visit.
“It’s been 59 years, and David’s finally being recognized,” Donna Ward said. “It’s just unbelievable that finally it’s happening.”
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