Mary Augusta Ward, 1851-1920
Novelist who wrote as Mrs. Humphry Ward. Mary Augusta Arnold was born in Tasmania, The family returned to England in 1856 and in 1861 her father became head classical master of the Oratory School in Birmingham, a position he held for four years. During this period Mary attended the Rock Terrace School for Young Ladies in Shifnal
The family settled in Oxford and here Mary met and married Thomas Humphry Ward, Fellow and tutor of Brasenose College. In 1881 the couple moved to London where Thomas joined the staff of The Times while Mary contributed articles and reviews. 1884 saw the publication of her first novel “Mrs. Bretherton”. She held a lifelong interest in religion and particularly in the idea of the social functions of religion for the benefit of the poor and weak. Views such as this were embodied in her best selling novel “Robert Elsmere” (1888) and she put her beliefs into practice by founding a settlement for the poor in London which later became the Passmore Edwards Settlement in Tavistock Square.
She wrote many more novels in the years leading up to the First World War, combining this with her work for crippled and impoverished children and in her crusade against women's suffrage (she was the first President of the Anti-Suffrage League in 1908). During the war she toured the trenches and wrote up her experiences on behalf of the government for publication in America - these were England's effort (1916), Towards the goal (1917) and Fields of victory (1919). In her autobiographical A writer's recollections (1918) there are brief accounts of her early years in the West Midlands. She died in London and was buried at Aldbury in Hertfordshire. Her daughter, Janet Penrose Trevelyan, published a biography in 1923.
Adapted from An Illustrated Literary Guide to Shropshire
by Gordon Dickins, published by Shropshire Libraries, 1987
