Clodagh Finn: Remember Mary Ward’s life as well as her record-setting death

She has also been called a “19th-century celebrity scientist” who broke two glass ceilings of her time, more of which later.

I like to think of her watching – and documenting – the building of one of the world’s biggest telescopes in Birr, Co Offaly, on the estate of her cousin, William Parsons, the third Earl of Rosse.

His wife was also called Mary (Countess of Rosse), and the two women had much in common. They shared an interest in astronomy and new technology, so both of them must have been keenly interested in watching the Leviathan, as it was called, take shape in the mid-19th century.

Mary (Rosse) took a series of stunning photographs, including one showing her husband standing to his full height inside one of the telescope’s enormous tubes. 

While she didn’t take any credit for assembling the telescope, her biographers speculate she was involved; her knowledge of engineering and blacksmithing must surely have come in useful.

I like to think of the two Marys discussing everything from lens to fireworks manufacture. 

We know that Mary (Ward) had knowledge of the latter, and much more. She made her own telescope from a kit ordered from London.

The giant telescope remained the world’s largest for several decades, even earning a mention in Jules Verne’s 1865 science fiction work, From the Earth to the Moon: “We know that the instrument mounted by Lord Rosse at Parsonstown, which magnifies 6,500 times, brings the moon to within an apparent distance of sixteen leagues.”

The Offaly telescope is still remembered as a world-record breaker. Now, Mary Ward is being recalled for setting another world record in the new Road Safety Authority (RSA) campaign. She was the first person to die in a car accident.

I doubt she would have framed it as such. When she visited Birr on that fateful day, August 31, 1869, she must have been excited to find that her younger cousins had built a steam-powered machine which could travel at speeds of 7mph. 

She climbed on board, with her husband. As the ‘car’ turned, she was thrown from it, falling to her death under a wheel.

She died, as she had lived, experimenting with new technology.

In a sense, it is fitting that the RSA has returned to the very first road casualty to front its new awareness campaign. Bringing Mary Ward back into the public gaze reminds us, once again, of how much is lost when a person dies in a car accident.

That will resonate after a particularly cruel August, when so many lives were snuffed out on our roads.

To focus on statistics for a moment, the first woman to die in a road accident in the UK also died in August. She, too, was Irish. Bridget Driscoll was 44 when she was run over by a Roger-Benz car — said to have been driven at speed — atCrystal Palace, London, on August 17, 1896.

At her inquest, the coroner said he hoped that hers would be the last death due to a car accident. Vision Zero is not new.

What has changed, however, is the way in which road deaths are reported. In the 19th-century, reports of the deaths of Mary Ward and Bridget Driscoll focused on the minute details of the accident and the nature of each woman’s death.

Now, the coverage rightly focuses on the person who has died, highlighting all that has been lost to the world by their passing.

It would be such a shame, then, if Mary Ward returns to the public consciousness only to be labelled as the world’s first road death.

She set many other records before her untimely death at 42. The first was to succeed in following her interests as the youngest of three daughters born to Harriette and Henry King in Ballylin, near Ferbane, Co Offaly, in 1827. 

Unlike many women of the time, her early enthusiasm for astronomy and microscopy were encouraged, in particular by her cousin William Parsons.

She got her first microscope at 18 and taught herself how to use it, examining insects and flora. 

She charted the fine detail of the wonders she saw in illustrations which attracted interest in the scientific community. But, as science writer Emily Willingham writes, she also gauged interest in her work from acquaintances from all walks of life.

When Mary showed a housemaid what could be revealed under a microscope, she reportedly exclaimed: “Oh, Miss M, it makes me want to shout!”

Mary Ward’s marriage to Captain Henry Ward in 1854 did not put a stop to her work. In fact, the opposite was true: the income from her writing and illustrations was needed to supplement the family income. Captain Ward had resigned his army commission and had no regular income.

Mary published Microscope Teachings herself and the first print run of 250 sold out. It was quickly republished and went on to be a bestseller. 

In 1864, the London Evening Standard listed it among their Christmas book picks, enthusing:

“Mrs Ward is no mere dabbler; what she does at all she does well … To any one who takes an interest in the minutiae of nature, there could be no more acceptable Christmas present than Mrs Ward’s “Microscope Teachings” which we have read with unfeigned pleasure.”

Several books and articles followed, all written while she ran a household and raised eight children. 

She enlisted her sister, Lady Mahon’s help to write Entomology in Sport, Entomology in Earnest, a book for children. It, too, won acclaim.

Her skill as an artist was also admired. Scottish astronomer Sir David Brewster was so impressed that he asked her to illustrate many of his papers, including his biography of Sir Isaac Newton.

Mary Ward was setting other records too. In 1859, her name was added to the Royal Astronomical Society’s subscription list. Only two other women had that honour — mathematician Mary Somerville and Queen Victoria of England.

Three years later, she was considered so exceptional that the Royal Observatory at Greenwich broke its own “stringent rule against the admission of any lady” and allowed her entry.

As Emily Willingham recounts in this glorious paragraph: “Ward herself wrote about the experience when it was over: “We took our leave of the observatory … feeling much pleased by our exceptional case.” The italics were hers — she was not above being snarky.”

You can see why it would be such a mistake to remember Mary Ward only as the first road death. Here’s hoping that remembering how she lived — and every single person who has died on our roads — will help us to do what the RSA is asking us to do; that is, change our behaviour to make Irish roads safer.