Colleague supporting male soldiers in virtuous manner (7)
I believe the answer is:
morally
'in virtuous manner' is the definition.
(moral means virtuous or ethical)
'colleague supporting male soldiers' is the wordplay.
'colleague' becomes 'ally' (ally can mean a colleague or associate).
'supporting' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (in a down clue, some letters go below others).
'male' becomes 'm' (common abbreviation).
'soldiers' becomes 'OR' (Other Ranks).
'm'+'or'='mor'
'ally' after 'mor' is 'MORALLY'.
(Another definition for morally that I've seen is " To all intents and purposes - in terms of right and wrong".)