Adolphus William Ward

Sir Adolphus William Ward (2 December 1837 – 19 June 1924) was an English historian and man of letters.

He was born at Hampstead, London, and was educated in Germany and at Peterhouse, Cambridge.[1]

In 1866 he was appointed professor of history and English literature in Owens College, Manchester, and was principal from 1890 to 1897, when he retired. In 1898, Ward delivered the Ford Lectures at Oxford University. He took an active part in the foundation of Victoria University, of which he was vice-chancellor from 1886 to 1890 and from 1894 to 1896. In 1897 the freedom of the city of Manchester was conferred upon him, and on 29 October 1900 he was elected master of Peterhouse, Cambridge.[2]

His most important work is his standard History of English Dramatic Literature to the Age of Queen Anne (1875), re-edited after a thorough revision in three volumes in 1899. He also wrote The House of Austria in the Thirty Years' War (1869), Great Britain and Hanover (1899), The Electress Sophia and the Hanoverian Succession (1903); he edited George Crabbe's Poems (2 vols., 1905–1906) and Alexander Pope's Poetical Works (1869); he wrote the volumes on Geoffrey Chaucer and Charles Dickens in the "English Men of Letters" series, translated Ernst Curtius's History of Greece (5 vols., 1868–1873); he was one of the editors of the Cambridge Modern History, and with A. R. Waller edited the Cambridge History of English Literature (1907, etc.).

He served as president of the Royal Historical Society from 1899 to 1901[3] and he was knighted by the King in 1913.[4]

Notes

  1. ^ Adolphus William Ward in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
  2. ^ The colleges and halls - Peterhouse | British History Online
  3. ^ "List of Presidents". Royal Historical Society. http://www.royalhistoricalsociety.org/rhspresidents.doc. Retrieved 20 December 2010. 
  4. ^ "Birthday Honours" (in English). The Times (London, England: The Times): pp. 9–10. 3 June 1913. ""The distinguished historian and critic; Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, since 1900; Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, 1901; one of the editors of the Cambridge Modern History of the Cambridge History of English Literature"" 

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Academic offices
Preceded by
Joseph Gouge Greenwood
Vice-Chancellor, Victoria University (UK)
1887–1891
Succeeded by
Gerald Henry Rendall
Preceded by
Gerald Henry Rendall
Vice-Chancellor, Victoria University (UK) 2nd term
1895–1897
Succeeded by
Nathan Bodington
Preceded by
James Porter
Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge
1900–1924
Succeeded by
Robert Chalmers
Preceded by
William Chawner
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge
1901-1902
Succeeded by
Frederic Henry Chase