John Ward

John Ward (1837–1906) was an English draper, and an amateur palaeontologist and ichthyologist, known for collecting and researching fossils—especially fishes—from the coal mines of Staffordshire.

Many of the fossils he collected—including some type specimens—are in significant scientific collections. A number of species and a genus were named in his honour, although some of the species names are no longer considered valid.

He was a founder member and president of the North Staffordshire Naturalists Field Club and played an active role in the civic life of his home town of Longton, Staffordshire.

Early years and career

John Ward, son of William Ward, was born on 11 August 1837, in Fenton, North Staffordshire, and educated at Ivy House School, in nearby Hanley. He was raised by his grandfather, also John Ward, a draper, and at one time the Chief Bailiff of Fenton. He set up his own business as a draper, remaining one for most of this life, and working from premises at 23, Stafford Street in Longton, where he lived above the shop for most of his career. He was assisted in the business by his wife, Eliza, née Cooke, two years his senior, whom he married on 15 March 1860 at St Peter Ad Vincula, Stoke. He also wrote chapters for Walcot Gibson's "The Geology of the North Staffordshire Coalfields", published by the British Geological Survey in 1905.

Ward learned French in order to understand scientific publications in that language. Other specimens are in the Royal Scottish Museum, Leicester Museum, the Manchester Museum, the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery (which holds 798 of his specimens ), Bolton Museum, and the Hancock Museum, and in museums in mainland Europe and America.

Honours

Ward was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1874. He was made an honorary member of the North Staffordshire Institute of Mining Engineers. On presenting the medal, the club's then president Wheelton Hind stated that Ward:

Species named in his honour include:

Acanthodes wardi 1866, Mesolepis wardi 1866 Palaeoniscus wardi 1875; recombined as Rhadinichthys wardi 1891 Orthacanthus wardi 1880 (as Pleuracanthus wardi) Anthracomya wardi 1890 now Anthraconaia wardi Listracanthus wardi 1903.

All are fish, apart from Anthraconaia wardi, which is a mollusc. repeated with details of his funeral on 8 December.

In 1952, John Myers gave his presidential address to the North Staffordshire Field Club, entitled "The Geological Work of John Ward, Wheelton Hind and J. T. Stobbs".

Don Steward, writing in Geological Curator, the journal of the Geological Collections Group, a body for professional curators, described him in 1984 as "a world renowned palaeontologist whose name will always be associated with a remarkable collection of Carboniferous fossil fish obtained from the Potteries Coalfield."