John Frederick WardPrint Page

The brass plaque commemorates John Frederick Ward (1883 - 1954) who was the Headmaster of Prince Alfred College from 1930 to 1948 and trustee of the church. 

In 1930 he achieved his ambition of becoming headmaster of Prince Alfred College, and followed his predecessors John Hartley and Frederic Chapple in emphasizing mathematics and science; like them, he enjoyed almost unlimited authority and dominated the school. Ward also shared a belief in the value of hard work, demonstrating it especially through detailed supervision of school affairs in the Depression and in World War Two when the school's resources were strained. Prince Alfred College lacked the endowment and prestige of its Adelaide rival, the Anglican Collegiate School of St Peter, a lack which he felt keenly.

A member of the South Australian government's education inquiry committee in 1942, Ward also belonged to the councils of the University of Adelaide and of Lincoln College. He was a founder and chairman (1943-46) of the Australian Headmasters' Conference, and a long and staunch member of the Australian Student Christian Movement. Appointed O.B.E. in 1948, he retired that year and wrote Prince Alfred College (1951). On the last day of his life he quoted the precept by which he had always been guided: 'Faith is putting into your life the substance of what you believe'. He died on 18 August 1954 in North Adelaide and was buried in Centennial Park cemetery.

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