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and a man of the highest principle. Perhaps his most valuable single contribution was his forthright advocacy of
the interests of Territorians during his political career of 27 years’.
Ian Barker QC recognised his contribution to reform: ‘In days when NT Aborigines were subject to legal
restrictions, which we now find abhorrent, Richard Ward was ever ready to challenge those administrative decisions
by which the lives of Aborigines were governed and effectively he did challenge them. In more recent times in the
case of Davis Daniels, he by his advocacy established the right for an Aborigine to live off the land without being
branded a vagrant. And it was probably that case which led ultimately to the repeal of the NT Vagrancy Laws’.
Long-time friend and advocate, Jim Bowditch, who as editor of the Northern Territory News had often joined
with Ward in his battles for social reform, paid tribute to his humility and generosity: ‘Dick Ward often received
no money for court cases of highly skilled efforts... Friends and associates estimate that Dick would have been
a millionaire had he been paid for half the cases he took and for people he represented in other ways. A brilliant
advocate in the Courts and through the Territory’s Parliament, he wrote humanitarianism into ancient laws, drafted
new legislation and helped set new social patterns. It would be hard to assess just how big a role Dick Ward
played in the bitter arguments and clashes which wrote racial discrimination out of Territory and Australian law,
but it would have been considerable. He lived to see the white backlash and had he lived longer would have
contributed enormously to what has yet to be done to have racial equality accepted socially as well as legally.
But his humanitarian and legal efforts spanned much wider horizons than the often narrow ones of the criminal law
courts’, Bowditch wrote, (There was) ‘Ward moving to block evictions of people unable to pay rent; Ward moving
to block the Federal Govt from deporting the “stayput Malaysians” from Darwin; Ward constantly standing up in
the courts and in the Legislative Council putting the case for compassion for people for the rights of the underdog
in scores of social and legal battles. The quiet, self effacing man never spoke of his efforts and was rarely paid for
them. In his off duty hours Dick Ward liked nothing better than to share a few beers and yarn with old and new
Territorians at the public bar of the Hotel Darwin. He was a humorous man who could tell and appreciate a good
story. He was often branded as a communist or a radical. In actual fact he was never a party man not really even
of the Labor Party he belonged to for so long. He was, if anything, the epitome of a basic humanitarian’. Bowditch
spoke for all when he concluded ‘The Territory has never been noted for its gratitude towards and recognition of
its great—if ever a man earned a permanent place on the Honour roll it was Richard Charles ‘Dick’ Ward’.
J Bowditch, Whispers from the North, 1993; B James, research notes; R Jolly, ‘The More Things Change... ’, BA (Hons) Thesis, Northern
Territory University, 1991; D Lockwood, The Front Door, 1969; Northern Territory News, various issues; Northern Territory Parliamentary
Record, various issues; Supreme Court transcripts; Who’s Who in Australia.
BARBARA JAMES, Vol 3.
WARREN, HUBERT ERNEST de MEY (1885–1934), Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionary to the
Aborigines of Arnhem Land, was born in Prahran, Melbourne, on 2 March 1885. He inherited a sense of adventure
from his father, William Robert de Mey Warren, who settled in Victoria after serving in the Royal Navy. William
Warren was descended from the de Meys of Devon and Cornwall, who owed their origin to a Huguenot who
escaped to England from France during the religious persecutions of the seventeenth century.
Warren’s mother’s name was Selina Jane Cornish Horrell, a daughter of Charles Cornish Horrell, a landowner
of Windsor, a suburb of Melbourne. The Horrells and the Cornishes had been well-known families in Exeter
in Devon, England. Warren grew up at 30 The Avenue, Windsor. He was a keen bicycle rider; making frequent
cycling trips around Melbourne or on his father’s properties. He was educated at All Saint’s Church Grammar
School, St Kilda.
Warren inherited a fascination for machines from his father. At the age of 14 years, Robison Brothers and
Company, a firm of marine engineers in South Melbourne, apprenticed him. He served his six years’ apprenticeship
with this firm, becoming a very fine engineer. He later used to great advantage in north Australia the skills that he
learned there.
Warren became interested in missionary work among the Aborigines in north Australia after a friend, Rex Joynt
had been accepted by the Victorian Church Missionary Association (CMA, afterward the Victorian CMS) to be
one of the founding missionaries of their new Roper River Mission. He applied to the CMA to be a missionary and
was accepted provisionally on his first being ordained to the Anglican ministry.
Warren’s ordination training took place at Moore College, Sydney. He was not a good student academically.
The subtleties of philosophy did not appeal to his practical mind; he was a maker of church history rather than
a student of it. Despite his lack of academic ability, he soon made his mark in the college as a person of great
faith and sincerity, being elected Senior Student in his last year. He was made deacon on 21 December 1910 and
ordained priest a year later on 21 December 1911. After a further two years’ curacy at St Clement’s, Marrickville,
he was accepted by the Victorian CMA for missionary service at the Roper River Mission.
Warren found the mission in a deplorable state when he arrived there in June 1913. The primitive living
conditions, the isolation of the station, the trying climate and continual sickness had resulted in personality clashes
and frustration among the handful of missionaries. Quarrelling and pettiness were commonplace, and the work
was almost at a standstill. The situation improved later in the year when Warren was appointed superintendent of
the mission.
Warren quickly set about putting the mission in order. He was a born leader and the missionaries and their
Aboriginal helpers responded to his positive attitudes. The half-completed buildings were finished, better
schooling was started and the agricultural work was improved. With the stabilisation of the work Warren returned
to Melbourne in January 1915 and discussed with the Victorian CMA plans for the extension of mission activity
along the east Arnhem Land coast and to Groote Eylandt. The possibility of such a chain of missions had been