Obituary—John Ward, F.G.S. 141 
JOHN WARD, F.G.S. 
Born Aveust 11, 1837. Dirp NovEMBER 30, 1906. 
Tue death of Mr. John Ward, of Longton. Staffordshire, removes. 
from the Midlands one of its best known and most active geologists 
and paleontologists. Mr. Ward devoted the leisure of his busy life 
to a detailed study of the North Staffordshire Coalfield and its fossils. 
He was a pioneer in the collection of fossils to illustrate accurately 
their zonal distribution ; and he met with great success not only in 
unravelling the stratigraphy of the Coal-measures, but also in the 
discovery of a large number of well-preserved fossil fishes, which were 
new to science and contributed to a great advance in our knowledge 
of Paleozoic Ichthyology. 
Mr. Ward was born at Fenton, North Staffordshire, in 1837, and 
was educated at Ivy House School, Hanley. Early in life he entered 
on a business career, which occupied him until the end, and only left. 
him scanty leisure for the pursuit of studies. When quite young, he 
came under the influence of Dr. Robert Garner (author of the well- 
known ‘‘ Natural History of the County of Stafford,” 184+), who 
encouraged him in the geological researches which became the main 
recreation of his life. In 1865 he attended the meeting in. Stoke 
at which the North Staffordshire Field Club was established, and 
continued for forty years to be one of its most active members. 
Mr. Ward’s geological researches had as their chief aim the 
identification and correlation of the more important coal-seams of 
North Staffordshire by their fossils; and one of his earliest discoveries. 
was that of marine bands intercalated at definite horizons in- the 
Coal-measure series. His observations were first summarised in 1890 
in his exhaustive volume on ‘‘The Geological Features of the North 
Staffordshire Coalfields,” published by the North Staffordshire 
Institute of Mining Engineers. His final conclusions formed the 
subject of some valuable chapters on the ‘‘ Palzeontology of the Pottery 
Coalfield,” which he contributed to the Geological Survey Memoir 
in 1905. 
Mr. Ward was also an accomplished paleontologist and made many 
important observations on the fossils in his collection, but he rarely 
attempted paleontological descriptions. His fossil fishes were studied 
and described by Egerton, Huxley, John Young, James W. Davis, 
Dr. Traquair, and the present writer, some of the most important 
researches of Dr. Traquair having been based almost entirely on the 
specimens obtained from the Coal-measures of Longton and Fenton. 
Mr. Ward’s name, however, is permanently associated with his 
discoveries in numerous instances, such as those of Acanthodes Wardi, 
Listracanthus Wardi, Mesolepis Wardi, Rhadinichthys Wardi, and 
others. The Lower Carboniferous Platysomid genus /ardichthys is 
also named after him. 
When, by the closing of certain coal-pits, opportunities for collecting 
fossil fishes became fewer, Mr. Ward decided to offer his collection to 
the British Museum, and the principal part of it was purchased by 
the Trustees in 1894. After that year he devoted attention more. 
especially to the Mollusca and Plants, which were described respectively 
by Dr. Wheelton Hind and Mr. R. Kidston; though he still never 
