Guide to the Letters of Captain T.G.S. Ward (as filmed by the AJCP), 1821-1866

Summary

Collection number:

M407 - M409, M593, M718

Extent:

212 items

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.

Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.

Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for reference.

Background

Content Summary:

Private and Commercial Correspondence collected by Captain T.G.S. Ward reflecting the history of Postmarks was filmed by the Australian Joint Copying Project includes letters are grouped by State of origin, with any New Zealand letters following the Australian items. Within each State group the correspondence is divided, where necessary, into commercial, private and church letters.

M407-409:

New South Wales correspondents include Edwards Hunter, Salting Garrard, C.W. Roemer, H. Ferres, James Williamson, Thomas B. Allen, John McGarvie, Archibald Mosman, Felton Mathew, S. Raymond, J. Glanville, Sir Alfred Stephen, Henry Edwards, Jane Black, W.F. Scott, George G. Dickinson, Thomas Hall, William Buyers, Robert Ross, John Saunders, L. MacAlister, Mrs Betts, Joseph Davies, George Whitfield, William McKernan and Michael Moran.

Queensland material comprises a letter written by Spooner Coleman of North Brisbane in 1848 and a printed pamphlet on emigration to Queensland 1863.

South Australian correspondents include Acraman Main Lindsay and Co, F.G. Waterhouse, William Giles, W.G. Lambert, John Newman, James Ide, J.M. Skipper, E.A. Wright, John Hance and Thomas Q. Stow.

Tasmanian correspondents include Major George Deare, William Inkersole, Robert Pitcairn, R. Jacomb, Elizabeth Staples, Samuel Pratt Winter, C. Swanston, Charles McDonnell, W.H. Thomas, O. Gilles, Samuel Jackson, Edward T. Bell, Avison Terry, Aaron Allason, Henry D. Dowling and W. Goulston, and two surgeons reporting on the health of Peter Ewart.

Victorian correspondents include Mr Thatcher, David Young, Alex Anderson, Daniel McKenzie, Mary Walker, William Hull, R. Jacomb, J.W. Carlton, Charles H. Lyon, Robert Jobson, Frederick Miller, Richard Fletcher, Samuel Greenlees, Benjamin Hurst, R.T. Elliott, W. Westgarth and F.W. Campbell.

The Western Australian letters consist of one letter from John G. Bussell and seven from Fanny L. Bussell 1834-46, together with six letters written by members of the Carter Family of Gwambygine Farm.

The New Zealand correspondents are Alexander Kennedy, George Laurence, J.T. Tatum and Mr Rout.

M593:

100 commercial and private letters from Australia. Correspondents include Robert Campbell, Dr John Lhotsky, Robert Thomson Co, Francis Halbed and Alex McKean.

M718:

Australian correspondents include William Fitzherbert, Robert Thomson Co, Henry Mace, John Waugh, James Crichton, Robert Foster, Ann Gaywood, George S. Brodie, Henry Palmer, Rose Family, Adam W. Elmslie, and J. Sewell. The four New Zealand letters are from Fanny and James E. Fitzgerald of Lyttelton.

Biographical / Historical:

Thomas Gray Spencer Ward attended the Nautical College at Pangbourne, Berkshire, from 1942 to 1946. He then joined the Port Line as an apprentice and remained with the company until his retirement in 1980. The Port Line was a subsidiary of the Liverpool-based Cunard Line. For about twenty years Ward commanded Port Line vessels, mostly trading with Australia and New Zealand.

Ward had a strong interest in postal history and philately and built up considerable knowledge of the sailing ships and steamers that carried mails between Britain and Australia and New Zealand in the nineteenth century. In the 1960s he contributed regular articles on this subject to the Postal History Society Bulletin. He assembled a large collection of Australian letters on account of their postmarks, including both business and personal letters. Some were written by notable figures such as William Westgarth, Sir Alfred Stephen, the Reverend Thomas Stowe and Fanny Bussell. Recognising that the content of the letters, as well as their covers, were important, Ward offered them for copying to the Australian Joint Copying Project on a number of occasions between 1960 and 1967.

After he retired, Ward emigrated to Australia and lived at Nambucca Heads on the north coast of New South Wales. He maintained his interest in postal history and in 2000 published The California, New Zealand and Australian Mail Line of steam packets 1870-71.

Related

Existence and Location of Copies:

The original AJCP microfilm of the records filmed from this collection is available at the National Library of Australia [https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2248057] as well as other institutions holding AJCP microfilm.

Existence and Location of Originals:

Captain T.G.S. Ward. Nambucca Heads, New South Wales.

Conditions Governing Access:

Available for Access.

Conditions Governing Use:

Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.

Preferred citation:

Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.

Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.

Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)

Location of this collection:

National Library of Australia

Parkes Place

Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Contact:

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