Vice-Chancellors

Professor John Manning Ward AO — Vice-Chancellor 1981-1990

MA LLB, FAHA FASSA FRAHS
Chairman, Professorial Board: 1974 - 1975
Chairman, Academic Board: 1975 - 1977
Vice-Chancellor: 1981 - 1990
Fellow of Senate: 1974 - 1977, 1981 - 1990

Professor John Manning Ward took office as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney in 1981 and retired from that position on 31 January 1990. He is the only Univerisity of Sydney graduate to have held that post since the University's foundation. Professor Ward was a member of the University staff for 47 years.

Professor Ward played a major role in the development of the activities of the University's Academic Board. He was the last Chairman of the Professorial Board (1974), drafted the constitution of the succeeding Academic Board and became its first Chairman (1975 - 1977).

He was highly regarded by staff and students for his administrative skills, international perspective and his personal qualities of courtesy and kindness. He maintained open channels of communication with University personnel in a period of financial restraints and during the introduction of devolved budgeting. In addition to the reform of financial and academic administration through devolution, he was at the helm during the institutional amalgamations and consolidations, which he believed would be of real academic benefit.

He established valuable personal links abroad which led to new graduate groups in several countries and academic cooperation with universities in Japan and Korea. An Honorary Doctorate was conferred on Professor Ward by Waseda University in early 1990. Waseda and the University of Sydney signed a Cultural Agreement in 1985, which encouraged acdemic visits, student exchange and the exchange of scientific materials.

Professor Ward was a distinguished historian, serving as Challis Professor of History from 1948 to 1979. He steered the History Department through a period of scarce resources into an era of expansion. Today it is one of the largest and most productive in Australia. He produced major books and articles on British, Imperial and Australian history which have won international acclaim. His boooks include "British Policy in the South Pacific, 1796-1893" (reprinted three times); "Earl Grey and the Australian Colonies, 1847-1856"; "Colonial Self-Government, the British Experience, 1759-1856"; and "James Macarthur, Colonial Conservative, 1798-1867", the latter being the first in a trilogy on conservatism in Australia. Professor Ward had planned on retirement to complete the other two books n the series.

Professor Ward was born on 6 July 1919 and educated at Fort Street Boys High School. He was the Smuts Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University in 1972; Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford in 1968 and Visiting Professor at Yale University in 1963. He was admitted to the NSW Bar in 1948.

Not long after his retirement on on 31 January 1990, Professor John Manning Ward, together with his wife Patricia, 69, and his daughted Jennifer, 36, who were on board the 3801 steam train on a Sunday excursion run between Sydney and the Hunter Valley, were killed after a train crash near Hawkesbury River Station on 6 May 1990. The collision between a commuter train and the steam train also killed Moira Jennings, the wife of the Registrar, as well as injuring several other members of the University.

Taken from the University of Sydney News special edition, 8 May 1990

• Above: Vice-Chancellor Professor John Ward with his family at his retirement dinner held in the Great Hall, 1989. (University of Sydney Archives)