ABSTRACT
Harriet Ward, not to be confused with Mrs. Humphrey Ward, was born in Thorp, Norfolk in 1808. She was the daughter of one army officer, Colonel Francis Tidy, and in 1831 married another, Captain John Ward of the 91st Regiment (the Argyllshire Highlanders). The Wards were posted with the Argylls to South Africa in 1842, and after surviving a shipwreck, arrived in 1843 to spend five years there. Mrs. Ward spent much of her time learning about local indigenous culture and was somewhat critical of the imperial project, although to be sure she saw Africa and Africans through the lens of European social practices and expectations. She began her journalistic career in South Africa, writing columns for a local newspaper, and when the Seventh Frontier War broke out (then called Kaffir War, a term now considered highly offensive) she reported on the conflict for the United Service Magazine. She was critical of British policy in the region and of the conditions in the British army, especially when overseas. After returning to England, she began to write novels: Helen Chateris appeared in 1848 and focused on a Creole woman in the West Indies. Jasper Lyle: A Tale of Kafirland [sic] followed in 1851. Harriet Ward largely disappears after the 1850s, and she died in 1873. The excerpt below is a fictionalised account of a young army wife’s life, but contains many didactic passages that are deeply critical of the ways in which the military treated soldiers and their wives.
