Celebrating Fifty Years of Archaeology-Remembering Past Staff: Valerie Ward

Val Ward was born in 1935 in Durban, where she later studied and then practised medical technology. She published her first paper in 1960 in the SA Journal of Medical History. Her career took her to the United Kingdom, where she married Tony Ward, a pathologist. Together they moved to Hong Kong where Val studied several non-university courses, including archaeology. She became active in the Hong Kong Archaeological Society and published a monograph on stone adzes from the city. On a visit to Natal in 1974, she contacted the Natal Museum and joined an archaeological rescue excavation. In 1977, the Wards returned to South Africa and Val worked for the Natal Museum on a voluntary basis before being offered a position as Technical Officer in 1980. She remained in this position until her retirement in 1998. Val contributed substantially to the Archaeology Department’s research output as author and co-author and was the assistant editor for the Natal Museum Journal of Humanities (now Southern African Humanities) from 1992 onwards. She was also an energetic organizer of the South African Archaeological Society’s Natal Branch. In many ways, Val occupied the crucial role of what is today termed a “Collections Manager”. She ensured that protocol and procedure were followed in regard to the use of the museum’s collections while never obstructing the research process. She passed away in 2016.