Surgeon's mate on board the Bounty, and acting surgeon after Dr Huggan's death.

A loyalist.

Bligh had become aware of the chronic drunkenness of his ship's surgeon, Thomas Huggan, long before the Bounty sailed from Spithead. He tried to get him replaced, but the Admiralty either refused or could not find a replacement. Bligh then tried to procure an assistant surgeon from one of the ships anchored at Spithead and found Thomas Ledward who had just been paid off with a good character from HM frigate Nymph, commanded by Captain Albemarle Bertie, which had just been stood down while in process of refitting for sea. (Captain Bertie, by the way, would later be one of the judges at the court-martial of the accused mutineers.)

Ledward was a man who went about his duty quietly and conscientiously. His initial view of Bligh was that "though a passionate Man, [he] is I believe a good-hearted Man, and has behaved very handsomely to me." By the time the loyalists reached Batavia, however, he resented what he saw as his pettiness and self-interest in not being willing to advance him money save on very stringent terms.

Opposite the name Thomas Ledward the following note is written in the muster book of the Bounty: "17th Nov., 1789. Embarked on board the Rotterdam Welfare. Q. What became of him?"

The likelihood is that Ledward was lost when the Welfare (or more properly Rotterdams Welvaren, Captain Willem Jakob Rudde) went down with all 101 crew and passengers on board en route to Cape Town. His letter from Batavia suggests this since endorsed either by the recipient (his uncle) or another member of the family "Poor, unfortunate Thos. Ledward." An erroneous belief that he may have been surgeon on Vancouver's Discovery from 1791 to 1795 is based on confusing him with Thomas Laithwood or Lathwood, a carpenter's mate who fulfilled the role of surgeon's mate later in that voyage.

(added by bluegums)