Mrs. Humphry Ward

Mrs. Humphry Ward (1851–1920), born Mary Augusta Arnold in Tasmania, was an English novelist, granddaughter of Thomas Arnold of Rugby and niece of Matthew Arnold. Raised in Oxford, where she married the scholar Thomas Humphry Ward, she published Robert Elsmere in 1888, a novel about a clergyman's loss of faith that Gladstone reviewed at length and that became one of the best sellers of the century. Later novels included The History of David Grieve, Marcella, Helbeck of Bannisdale and Lady Rose's Daughter. She founded the Passmore Edwards Settlement in London, pioneering play centers for children, and was the first president of the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League.