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WARD, JOSEPH THOMAS (1862-1927) was born in London, his father being a wine and spirit merchant. Belonging to an old Catholic family in Staffordshire and Yorkshire, he was in early youth an altar boy to Cardinal Newman, and was preparing for the priesthood when scientific curiosity diverted him. He went to sea, where he first acquired a taste for astronomy. In 1879 he came to New Zealand, and was employed on sheep stations in Marlborough. He settled in Wanganui in 1896, opening a bookshop in Victoria Avenue which became a rendezvous of intellectual and scientific students. He had a profound knowledge of astronomy and contributed to the journal of the British Astronomical Society his discoveries and theories concerning Mars. He was also interested in double stars, a list of which he forwarded to the Lick Observatory, California. Ward founded the Wanganui astronomical observatory in 1906, and was its honorary director until his death. He made many instruments for this and other observatories. The French Astronomical Society accepted and published his observations on a transit of Venus.

A warm champion of intellectual freedom, Ward was one of the 25 honorary associates of the Rationalist Press Association. A great thinker, a man of wide tolerance and a practical humanitarian, he had also a distinct literary gift, and wrote verse of good quality. He delivered the Cawthron lecture in 1926. He died on 4 Jan 1927.

L. J. B. Chapple (information); Wanganui Herald and Chronicle, 5 Jan 1927.