Thomas Humphry Ward

He was born in Kingston upon Hull, England; his parents were Henry Ward, a cleric, and Jane Sandwith, daughter of Humphry Sandwith III, a surgeon there.{{cite book|author=John Sutherland|title=Mrs. Humphry Ward|year=1990|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=978-0-19-818587-1|page=43|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/mrshumphrywardem00suth}} He studied at Merchant Taylors' SchoolMinchin, J. G. C., Our public schools, their influence on English history; Charter house, Eton, Harrow, Merchant Taylors', Rugby, St. Paul's Westminster, Winchester (London, 1901), p. 195. and at Brasenose College, Oxford, at which he became a Fellow in 1869 and a tutor in 1870.

His compositions consisted of editorials which he submitted to The Times. Additionally, he edited a four-volume anthology, The English Poets (1880); Men of the Reign (1885); The Reign of Queen Victoria (1887); English Art in the Public Galleries of London (1888); and Men of the Time, which ran to 12 editions. He wrote alone Humphry Sandwith, a Memoir (1884), and jointly The Oxford Spectator (1868) and Romney (1904). Elected a member of the Athenaeum Club, London in 1885, he also completed the centenary history of the club, a work started by Henry Richard Tedder before his death, and published in 1926, the year he himself died.{{cite book |first=Humphry |last=Ward |authorlink=Thomas Humphry Ward |title=History of the Athenaeum 1824–1925 |location=London |date=1926|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofathenum0000ward}}

Ward acted (presumably) as an agent for numerous acquisitions of British Old Master paintings by the dealer Thomas Agnew & Sons. He is recorded as having sold portraits by George Romney (painter) including Jane Dawkes Robinson, Captain W. Scott, and Edward Addison, alongside works by Sir Thomas Lawrence and Alexander Nasmyth{{cite book |last1=Thomas Agnew & Sons |title=Picture Stock Book |date=1904–33 |location=London |url=https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/research/research-centre/agnew-s-stock-books/reference-nga27-1-1-10-1904-33 |access-date=21 April 2025}}.

Ward married Mary Augusta Arnold, who became a best-selling novelist of various genres including victorian values as Mrs Humphry Ward. Arnold was the daughter of a fellow Oxford academic, Tom Arnold and the marriage connected Ward to the influential intellectual families of the Arnolds and the Huxleys. They lived at 17 Bradmore Road in North Oxford, which Ward leased in 1872.{{cite book | title=North Oxford | last=Hinchcliffe | first=Tanis | year=1992 | publisher=Yale University Press | location=New Haven & London|page=220 | isbn=0-14-071045-0}} They had one son and two daughters:

• Dorothy Mary Ward (1874–1964){{cite web|website=The National Archives|title=Ward, Dorothy Mary, (1874-1964), daughter of Mrs Humphry Ward|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F40439|access-date=14 October 2024}}
• Arnold Sandwith Ward {{post-nominals|country=GBR|MP}} (1876–1950), journalist and politician
• Janet Penrose Ward (1879–1956), author and activist, married G. M. Trevelyan

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• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Thomas Humphry Ward}}
• {{cite news |title=Mr. Humphry Ward: Art critic and writer |work=The Times |issue=44275 |date=1926-05-19 |page=21 |language=English}}

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Category:1845 births

Category:1926 deaths

Category:Writers from Kingston upon Hull

Category:Journalists from Kingston upon Hull

Category:People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood

Category:Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford

Category:Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford

Category:English book editors