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Obituary: Dr.Ward

Dr. William George Ward, of Northwood Park, and Weston Manor, Isle of Wight, distinguished in Catholic theological literature as author of the "Ideal of a Christian Church," and other controversial works, died on the 5th inst., aged seventy. He played forty years ago a conspicuous part in the Tractarian or Anglo-Catholic movement at Oxford. He was the eldest son of Mr. William Ward, a director of the Bank, M.P. for the City of London, by Emily, his wife, daughter of Mr. Harvey Christian Combe, M.P., and grandson of Mr. George Ward, of Northwood Park, a London merchant of eminence, by Mary, his wife, daughter of Mr. Thomas Woodfall. His grand-uncle, Mr. Robert Plumer-Ward, attained celebrity as a novelist, and was author of "Tremaine," "De Vere,"&c. Dr. Ward, whose death we record, was educated at Winchester and Christ Church, Oxford, obtained a scholarship at Lincoln College, and took his Bachelor's degree in 1834. Shortly after, he was elected Fellow of Balliol, and for a time held the Mathematical Tutorship of his College. From the very first he evinced an active interest in the "Tracts for the Times," became an ardent admirer of Dr. Newman, and eventually made his submission to the Roman Catholic Church. As compensation for the loss of his Oxford academic honours, the Pope gave him a Doctor's degree, and he was appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy at St. Edmund's College, Herts. After Cardinal Wiseman he edited the Dublin Review, and proved himself no unworthy successor of his Eminence. Dr. Ward married, March 31, 1845, Frances Mary, youngest daughter of the Rev. John Wingfield, D. D., Prebendary of Winchester, by whom he leaves three sons and five daughters, of whom the eldest is a Religious of the Order of St. Dominick, and the second of the Order of St. Benedict. The family estates are very considerable in the Isle of Wight and Hants.

Source: The Illustrated London News, No.2254—Vol. LXXXI, Saturday, July 15, 1882, p.74