Charlotte Allen was born on December 11, 1880 in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1903 and taught at various schools until her marriage in 1907 to Edwin St. John Ward, a surgeon and Professor of Surgery. They had five children. For 25 years she lived in the Middle East while her husband worked in various hospitals for the Red Cross. In 1931 he became the medical director of the Hospital Cottages for Children in Baldwinville. Charlotte Ward died on November 14, 1973 in Penny Farms, Florida.