Herbert Ward (sculptor)

Herbert Ward (11 January 1863, London – 5 August 1919, Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a British sculptor, illustrator, writer, and explorer in Africa.

He was a member of Henry Morton Stanley's Emin Pasha Relief Expedition and became a close friend of Roger Casement while they were working in the Congo Free State.

He was awarded the Croix de Guerre,[1] was twice mentioned in dispatches in World War I, was an officer of the Légion d'Honneur[2] and a member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors.

In 1884, Ward met Henry Morton Stanley in London, when he was interviewed for a post as an officer in the new Congo Free State, effectively a private colony of King Leopold of Belgium.

Stanley recommended Ward for a position, and he worked for the next two years along the upper and lower Congo River, where he first met Roger Casement.

In March 1887, having left the Sanford Company, Ward was returning to England when he again encountered Stanley, who was assembling the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition.

Slaves were often cheap – "two ordinary women may be purchased for the price of one pig" – and people did not find their consumption more troubling than that of animals, arguing that both were "property".

[22][23] Despite these customs, Ward liked the character of the people he met, noting that they were very cordial in their family relationships and towards friends[24] and "possess[ed] so much taste for form and decoration".

He was also referred to as Mayala Mbemba, "the wings of an eagle", a tribute to a 40-mile trek he had accomplished in a single day on atrocious roads from Kimpete to Lukungu, Congo.

He never returned but "the enchantment of Africa held him nevertheless, dominating his future, shaping and colouring his life's work – the imprint of those five years was indelible".

Writing in 1910, Ward says: Imagine a tall, handsome man, of fine bearing; thin, mere muscle and bone, a sun-tanned face, blue eyes and black curly hair.

[4] Describing Casement to Morel, Ward wrote: "No man walks this earth at the moment who is more absolutely good and honest and noble-minded".

[27] He fulfilled his threat, refusing to sign the petition for clemency that was organised in 1916 by writer Arthur Conan-Doyle after Casement was condemned to death for treason.

In 1899, deciding that sculpture was where his real talents lay, he apprenticed to Goscombe John RA before moving permanently to work in France.

Herbert's grandfather, Henry Ward, travelled with John James Audubon on his 1831–32 collecting visit to South Carolina and Florida in the southern United States.