Ward, Anne, 1906-1980

Anne Isabel Ward was a missionary. She was born in Granton, Ontario on January 14, 1906 and attended the Toronto Conservatory of Music, the University of Western Ontario and the United Church Training School. In 1930 she was designated as missionary and was sent to West China under the Woman’s Missionary Society. She taught at the Hwa Yin Girls’ High School in Chengtu until 1937; served as Dean of Women at the West China Union University for a brief period and became head of its Fine Arts Department. In between she taught choral work and piano. She did not leave immediately following the establishment of the Communist government in 1949 but stayed on for two more years and was one of the last missionaries of the United Church to depart from China.
After a year’s furlough, Anne Ward took up the post of General Secretary of the Dominion Board of the Woman’s Missionary Society. Under her helm, the work of the Woman’s Missionary Society and Board of Overseas Missions was unified paving the way for the creation of United Church Women and the Board of Women. She served as the first secretary of the latter board from 1962-1969. She died on September 1, 1980.