Mary Augusta Ward CBE was a British novelist who wrote under her married name as Mrs. Humphry Ward. She worked to improve education for the poor and she became the founding President of the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League. Ward began her career writing articles for Macmillan's Magazine while working on a book for children that was published in 1881 under the title Milly and Olly. This was followed in 1884 by a more ambitious, though slight, study of modern life, Miss Bretherton, the story of an actress. Ward's novels contained strong religious subject matter relevant to Victorian values she herself practiced. Her popularity spread beyond Great Britain to the United States.