Ian Handford: Ward is the whipping boy for the humiliated government

After opening his osteopathy practice in Cavendish Square, London, Stephen soon became friends with famous cartoonist and socialite Arthur Ferrer, who virtually guaranteed him a new clientele from all over show business, modelling agencies, aristocrats, politicians and even royalty. He married actress Patricia May Baines, who was described at the time as “a real beauty from a wealthy middle class family” – but the marriage only lasted until 1949 and reportedly failed because Stephen preferred to “dominate rather than participate”.

Within a decade, a friendship with the shy Lord Astor joined the nightclub and girl-circle, and soon his Lordship was renting Stephen a cottage on the Astors' Cliveden estate, which proved an ideal venue for high society parties. In 1949, Stephen had met 17-year-old model Christine Keeler while she was working at the Murray Cabaret Club Soho. From 1961, Christine was a regular visitor to Cliveden, where she met senior Parliamentary Minister John Profumo. The press at the time knew nothing of an affair between Keeler and Profumo, although Christine was now a regular visitor to Ward's Wimpole Street home and his rented cottage in Buckinghamshire. Interestingly, it was Ward who eventually informed MI5 that the Russian Ivanov had met John Profumo (our Secretary of State for War).

Cliveden had plenty of parties that made for lucrative newspaper scandals. National journalists eagerly reported on the many famous men with an eye for the ladies who became regular visitors to Cleveden. But now there was a more serious question: pillow talk and its impact on national security. Newspapers were just trying to boost their sales, while stories about our Secretary of State for War meant that he was forced to deny every “affair” until he was forced to resign because numerous love affairs became too much for a disgraced Minister of State.

The extramarital affair with Christine Keeler led to her eventually admitting to sleeping with Ivanov Yevgeny. This shocked British cabinet ministers, who realised that the “pillow talk” affair posed a real security risk. They now made Ward a scapegoat, insinuating that he had “ever been a pimp”. After he was later charged by the police, the country learned that he was officially linked to M15. In the meantime, the High Court had found that he had lived off the immoral earnings of Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, which he always denied.

The girls had lived rent-free in Ward's house in Wimpole Mews, contributing only to household bills, not “additional services”. But in 1963, a very biased judge at the Old Bailey misjudged the case before releasing Stephen on bail. He admitted that Ivanov was a friend and that he had indeed lived in Wimpole Mews and the rented cottage, but when he realised that the Russian defector posed a security risk, Ward had voluntarily contacted MI5.

Ward was released on bail and immediately bought a quantity of barbiturates which he administered to himself, taking a lethal dose which sent him into a fatal coma and hospital. The following day, prosecutor Mervyn Griffith Jones summed up that Ward had pursued the deepest depths of lasciviousness and depravity before the (hostile) judge urged the jury to return a guilty verdict but “in absentia”. The verdict was to be postponed until the accused was well enough to reappear. Yet Stephen Ward never resurfaced, dying on August 3, leaving a written suicide note which confirmed: “I am sorry to disappoint the vulture, but I feel the day is lost. A ritual sacrifice is demanded and I cannot bear it.”

The prosecutor and the judge had won, just as Stephen had predicted. Later, journalist Ludovic Kennedy concluded in his book The Trial of Stephen Ward: “Ward was a scapegoat for the humiliation the government had suffered as a result of the Profumo affair.”

Prime Minister Harold Macmillan subsequently resigned before an establishment cover-up and possible miscarriage of justice occurred, which resulted in official government documents not being kept for thirty years but not being published until 2046.