Editing Dudley Ward (judge)

{{short description|Judge, Member of Parliament}}
{{for|the Victoria Cross recipient|Charles Ward (VC)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = 
| name             = Dudley Ward
| honorific-suffix = 
| image       = Dudley Ward (judge).jpg
| alt         = 
| caption     = Judge Ward
| office      =  <!--Can be repeated up to eight times by changing the number-->
| term_start  =  <!--Can be repeated up to eight times by changing the number-->
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| birth_name          = Charles Dudley Robert Ward
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1827|07|9|df=y}}
| birth_place        = at sea ([[Atlantic Ocean]])
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1913|08|30|1827|07|9|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Maori Hill]], [[Dunedin]], New Zealand
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| otherparty         =  <!--For additional political affiliations-->
| spouse             = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage |[[Anne Ward (suffragist)|Anne Ward]] |1850|1896|end=d.}}
* {{marriage |Thorpe Talbot |1902}}
}}
| relations          = {{unbulleted list|[[Robert Plumer Ward]] (grandfather)|[[Sir John Swinburne, 6th Baronet]] (grandfather)|[[William Ward (cricketer, born 1787)|William Ward]] (cousin)|[[William George Ward]] (cousin)}}
| children           = 
| parents            = [[Henry George Ward]]
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}}
'''Charles Dudley Robert Ward''' (9 July 1827 – 30 August 1913), known as '''Dudley Ward''', was a New Zealand judge and a [[Member of parliament|Member of Parliament]]. His first wife, [[Anne Ward (suffragist)|Anne Ward]], was a prominent [[Women's suffrage in New Zealand|suffragist]] and served as the first president of the New Zealand Women's Christian Temperance Union. His second wife, Frances Ellen "Thorpe" Talbot Ward, was a journalist and travel writer who also supported women's suffrage.

==Family and education==
Ward was born at sea on board HMS ''Primrose'' in the [[Atlantic Ocean]] on 9 July 1827.<ref name="ladies' man">{{cite news | date=9 July 2011 | first1=Geoff | last1=Adams | url=http://www.odt.co.nz/print/168349?page=0%2C1 | title=Larger-than-life ladies' man | work=[[Otago Daily Times]] | access-date=23 January 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150124011820/http://www.odt.co.nz/print/168349?page=0%2C1 | archive-date=24 January 2015 | url-status=dead }}</ref> He was the eldest son of diplomat, politician, and later governor of Ceylon, Sir [[Henry George Ward|Sir Henry George Ward]] [[Order of St Michael and St George|GCMG]] and Emily Swinburne, and a cousin of [[William Ward (cricketer, born 1787)|William Ward]] and [[William George Ward]]. He was educated at [[Rugby School]] and at [[Wadham College, Oxford]] (though not being awarded a degree) and completed his legal education at the [[Inner Temple]] being called to the Bar in 1853.<ref name="Scholefield 1940">{{cite book | page=458| editor-last = Scholefield | editor-first = Guy | editor-link = Guy Scholefield | title = A Dictionary of New Zealand Biography : M–Addenda | volume = II | year = 1940 | publisher = [[Department of Internal Affairs (New Zealand)|Department of Internal Affairs]] | location = Wellington | url = https://www.nzhistory.net.nz/files/documents/dnzb-1940/scholefield-dnzb-v2.pdf | access-date = 6 October 2013 }}</ref> His grandfathers were [[Robert Plumer Ward]] and [[Sir John Swinburne, 6th Baronet]].<ref name="ladies' man" />

==A career in New Zealand==
{{NZ parlbox header|nolist=true|align=left}}
{{NZ parlbox
|electorate=[[Wellington Country]]
|party=Independent politician
|start=[[1855 New Zealand general election|1855]]
|end=1858
|term=2nd}}
{{NZ parlbox footer}}
Ward was married on 26 January 1850, at [[Rotherhithe]], to [[Anne Ward (suffragist)|Anne Titboald]], who was born in [[Exeter]]. After his admission to the bar, the Wards set out for New Zealand, arriving on 29 September 1854 in [[Wellington]] on the ''Cordelia''. The following year, he successfully stood for election to the [[New Zealand House of Representatives|lower house]] of the [[2nd New Zealand Parliament]] representing the [[Wellington Country]] electorate from 15 November 1855.<ref name="DNZB Anne Ward">{{DNZB|Hutching |Megan |2W8|Ward, Anne|24 January 2015}}</ref> Ward resigned on 22 March 1858 before the end of the term. He did not serve in any subsequent Parliaments.<ref name="Wilson">{{cite book |last= Wilson |first= James Oakley |title= New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 |edition= 4th |orig-year= First ed. published 1913 |year= 1985 |publisher=V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer |location= Wellington |oclc=154283103 }}</ref>

==Judiciary==
On 1 June 1857, 18 months after his election to Parliament, Ward was appointed chairman of the Courts of Sessions of the Peace for the [[Wellington Province|Province of Wellington]] and presiding judge of the Magistrate's Courts for [[Hawke's Bay Region|Hawke's Bay]], [[Wairarapa]] and [[Whanganui|Wanganui]]. On 1 January 1864, he was given a two-year appointment as Resident Magistrate at [[Wellington]], the capital. The remainder of his career was appointments as District Judge for a series of individual provinces until, after more than 49 years service, his retirement in March 1906, aged almost 79, on a pension of £800 per annum.

=== Supreme Court ===
Ward was appointed Acting Supreme Court Judge on four occasions: September 1867 Dunedin; September 1886 Auckland; September 1887 Christchurch; March 1894 Dunedin again.

He had been involved in the parliamentary ''Ward-Chapman'' enquiry of 1874–75 after he laid certain charges of gross partiality against Justice [[Henry Samuel Chapman|Chapman]] of the Supreme Court. Chapman retired in 1875.

Ward declined a permanent appointment on the Supreme Court bench in June 1896, the offer being received just after the death of his wife, and he declined an Acting Supreme Court judgeship in the following year.<ref name="ODT obit">{{cite news | url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=ODT19130901.2.60 | title=Obituary | work=[[Otago Daily Times]] | date=1 September 1913 | issue=15857 | page=5}}</ref>

==Private life and second wife==
Ward was a tall man of strong build. He stood {{convert|6|ft|6|in|m}} tall and weighed {{convert|17|stone|kg}}.<ref name="ladies' man" /> In the 1880s and 1890s, the Wards had a house in the [[Christchurch]] suburb of [[Burwood, New Zealand|Burwood]]; it was said that they "scarcely spoke to each other".<ref name="Cemetery Tour">{{cite web | url=http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Heritage/Cemeteries/Burwood/BurwoodAnglicanCemetery.pdf |title=Burwood Anglican Cemetery Tour | last=Greenaway | first=Richard L. N. | date=June 2007 | publisher=[[Christchurch City Council]] | access-date=24 January 2015}}</ref> Later, they had a house in Park Terrace in the [[Christchurch Central City]].<ref>{{cite news | url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=CHP18960602.2.52.7 | title=Funeral Notices | work=[[The Press]] | date=2 June 1896 | access-date=23 January 2015 | volume=LIII | issue=9432 | page=8}}</ref> He is rumoured to have had several mistresses and [[Henry Samuel Chapman|Judge Chapman]] wrote about him:

{{cquote|a man of infamous private character, and has not the decency to conceal it <ref name="ladies' man" />}}

Ward's first wife [[Anne Ward (suffragist)|Anne Ward]] died in Christchurch on 31 May 1896 and was buried at Burwood Cemetery.<ref name="DNZB Anne Ward" /><ref>{{cite news | url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=TS18960604.2.28 | title=Local and General | work=[[The Star (Christchurch)|The Star]] | date=4 June 1896 | access-date=23 January 2015 | issue=5582 | page=3}}</ref>

Ward bought a house in the [[Dunedin]] suburb of [[Maori Hill]] for one of his mistresses, the writer Frances Ellen Talbot, better known under her pseudonym Thorpe Talbot (1851–1923).<ref>{{cite news |last1=Adams |first1=Geoff |title=Once celebrated in early Dunedin |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/once-celebrated-early-dunedin |access-date=16 October 2020 |work=[[Otago Daily Times]] |date=8 December 2015}}</ref> The house was held in the name of a farmer who Ward knew, and within a month of his wife's death, Ward's name was added to the [[Title (property)|title]].<ref name="ladies' man" /> On 6 January 1902, Ward and Talbot were married at that house, and Ward lived in it for the rest of his life.<ref name="ladies' man" />

==Death==
Dudley Ward died at his residence in Dunedin on 30 August 1913 aged 86.<ref name="ODT obit" /> There were no children from either marriage.<ref name="ladies' man" /><ref name="DNZB Anne Ward" /> His widow sent his body to Christchurch to be buried next to his first wife. The gravestone reads:

{{cquote|After long years of trial and sorrow cometh Charles Dudley Robert Ward to lay his weary heart beside her whom he held dearest of all <ref name="Cemetery Tour" />}}

His second wife was removed from her home after her husband's death and became impoverished.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Adams |first1=Geoff |title=Judge Ward: An 'Infamous' New Zealand Colonist and his Two Celebrity Wives |date=2011 |publisher=Geoff Adams |location=Dunedin, NZ |page=12}}</ref> She died in Dunedin  1923.<ref name="Cemetery Tour" />

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |last=Adams |first=Geoff |year=2011 |title=Judge Ward |location=Dunedin |publisher=Geoff Adams |isbn=978-146109-2216 }}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-par | nz}}
{{s-bef | before = [[William Barnard Rhodes]]}}
{{s-ttl | title = [[Wellington Country|Member of Parliament for Wellington Country]]| years=1855&ndash;1858}}
{{s-aft | after = [[Alfred Brandon (politician)|Alfred Brandon]]}}
{{end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Charles Dudley Robert}}
[[Category:1827 births]]
[[Category:1913 deaths]]
[[Category:District Court of New Zealand judges]]
[[Category:Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives]]
[[Category:People educated at Rugby School]]
[[Category:Members of the Inner Temple]]
[[Category:Burials at Burwood Cemetery, Christchurch]]
[[Category:New Zealand MPs for North Island electorates]]
[[Category:Colony of New Zealand judges]]
[[Category:19th-century New Zealand politicians]]
[[Category:Sheriffs of New Zealand]]
[[Category:People born at sea]]