Catalogue description Harry Marshall Ward Papers

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Personal letters written by Harry Marshall Ward to various family members and friends, with a smaller amount of correspondence to Ward, predominantly from family. Some letters also contain diary extracts from Ward's personal journal. Also includes correspondence to Selina Ward from family and friends (HMW/1/16-17), and letters to Harry and Selina's daughter, Winifred (HMW/1/18) and HMW/1/21).

Marshall Ward, Harry (1854-1906)

No accruals expected

Born 21 March 1854, Hereford. Eldest son of Francis Marshall Ward. Educated Cathedral school, Lincoln, later moved to a private school in Nottingham. Left school aged 14, continued his education by attending evening courses, science and art department, Owens College, Victoria University, Manchester where he was admitted to a course of instruction for teachers in training delivered by botanists William Thiselton-Dyer (1843-1928) and Sidney Howard Vines (1849-1934).

1876 secured open scholarship Christ College, Cambridge. 1879 awarded first class degree in the natural Science Tripos as the only botanist of the year. 1879 published first paper in the Jodrell Laboratory at Kew, in which he seriously criticised and corrected the work of Julien Joseph Vesque (1848-1895) on the embryo-sac of phanerogams.

1878 went to Germany for a short time to study. Worked at University of Würzburg with Julius von Sachs (1832-1897) whose lectures on plant physiology he later translated. End 1878 proceeded to Ceylon [Sri Lanka] for two years as Government Cryptogamist to investigate leaf disease in coffee.

1882 gained research fellowship and an assistant lectureship at Owens College, Victoria University, Manchester. 1883 married Selina Mary Kingdon, eldest daughter of Francis Kingdon of Exeter. Couple later had a daughter, Winifred Mary Kingdon-Ward, and a son, Francis Kingdon-Ward (1885-1958), who became a plant collector and explorer.
Lost out to Orpen Bower for position of Chair of Botany at Glasgow University, 1885. Became Chair of Botany at the Royal Engineering College, Surrey, and Fellow of the Linnean Society, 1886. 1892 elected Fellow of Royal Society.

1892-1899 collaborated with chemist Percy F Frankland (1858-1946) to investigate bacteriology of water at the request of the Royal Society. Ward identified 80 species of bacteria in Thames water. His conclusions about the destructive effects of light upon bacteria attracted public attention because of their hygiene implications. Last important line of research was the investigation of rusts that affect brome grasses. In connection with these investigations he became involved in a controversy on the mycoplasm theory.

1893, Royal Medal of the Royal Society. 1895, Professor of Botany, University of Cambridge. 1897, Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. One of the 60 founding members of the British Mycological Society; President, 1899-1901.

Died Babbacombe, Torquay, 26 Aug 1906. Survived by his wife.