Elizabeth Jane WARD

WARD, ELIZABETH JANE (NÉE GARLAND) (b. Parramatta, NSW, 27 March 1842; d. Sydney, NSW, May 1908). Evangelist and philanthropist.

Daughter of a farrier and his wife and educated at a private girls' school, in 1863 Elizabeth married Charles Ward, fellow Anglican and house-painter. She continued work as a milliner and had seven sons. Experiencing conversion shortly after 1883 she became a zealous district visitor in Sydney. She actively promoted evangelical philanthropy, sabbatarianism, public prayers, federation and old age pensions. She ran gospel meetings and was a prominent public speaker and pamphleteer. Through the Sydney City Mission's Ladies Committee she particularly aimed to help prostitutes and sweated labour; through the WCTU she fought for women's franchise to promote temperance and evangelical values.

As a working class woman, she was an unusual leader within Sydney's major women's evangelical organisations. Her autobiography reveals her motivation as a conviction of divine direction and of women's separate interests.

ADB 12; Elizabeth J Ward, Out of Weakness Made Strong, Being a Record of the Life and Labours of Mrs E. J. Ward (Sydney, 1903)

JUDITH GODDEN