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Webster 1913 Edition

Noun.

[For

vanward

, equivalent to

vanguard

. See

guard.]

The fore part; van.

[Obs.]

Since we have the

vaward

of the day.

Shakespeare

Noun.

[van and ward.] The fore part. Obs.

vaward ‎(plural vawards)

The vanguard.
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter x, in Le Morte Darthur, book II:
  THenne kyng Arthur made redy his hoost in x batails and Nero was redy in the felde afore the castel Tarabil with a grete hoost / & he had x batails with many mo peple than Arthur had / Thenne Nero had the vaward with the moost party of his peple / & merlyn cam to kyng lot of the yle of Orkeney
- 1988, Anthony Burgess, Any Old Iron:
  Then they were marched off to the railway station with the band in the vaward playing ‘Have you ever caught your ballocks in a rat trap?’