Rowland Ward - The Eternal Victorian Archivist Who Measured Giants

Picadilly London

Rowland Ward sits at the crossroads of Victorian natural history, early safari culture, and the birth of modern trophy measurement. His name today is synonymous with the world’s oldest and most globally recognized big‑game record book.

But the story begins with a London taxidermist who understood that hunters wanted more than mounts: they wanted documentation, prestige, and scientific order.

The London Studio

Ward’s shop on Piccadilly became a pilgrimage site for explorers, aristocrats, and returning hunters. Inside its walls, the world’s largest animals were rendered immortal. The studio became known as “The Jungle in London.”

The story is told that after the shop had closed on evening, Ward stood alone before a massive pair of kudu horns. He placed his calipers upon them, and in that moment realized that no one was preserving the nobility of game animals.

Hunters spoke of great animals. Explorers bragged of immense trophies. But nothing was written. Nothing was measured. Nothing was preserved. The world’s giants were disappearing into campfire stories.

So, Ward made a decision that would echo for more than a century. In 1892, Rowland Ward Ltd. published Horn Measurements and Weights of the Great Game of the World, the first edition of what would become Rowland Ward’s Records of Big Game. It was an instant success among British sportsmen and safari hunters. The 1896 edition adopted the now-famous title Records of Big Game. The 1899 edition was twice as large as the first, reflecting explosive interest.

Ward’s books were not intended as a “who’s who” of hunters. Instead, they were directories of where remarkable animals lived. This made the books both a scientific reference and a safari guide.

Ward’s system was one of the earliest — predating Boone & Crockett by several years. Rowland Ward’s system emphasizes simplicity — “the least amount of measuring” to rank the most desirable trophies; high minimums — ensuring only exceptional animals qualify; fair-chase ethics — modern RW explicitly ties entries to legal, ethical hunting; and global consistency — RW uses species-specific methods across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

Unlike the Boone & Crockett scoring system (which uses composite scores), RW focuses on greatest length, horn/antler spread, base circumference, and skull length (for cats, etc.). RW’s approach is more traditional and morphological, reflecting its Victorian origins.

The Man and His Method

James Rowland Ward was born in 1848 into a family of taxidermists and naturalists. He trained under his father but by 1870 had established his own shop in London, quickly becoming the premier taxidermist for aristocrats, explorers, and returning safari hunters.

Rowland Ward emerged from a family of taxidermists, but unlike his predecessors, he possessed a rare dual gift of the artisan’s eye, capable of rendering lifelike presence from hide and horn, and the natural philosopher’s mind, obsessed with classification, measurement, and the preservation of biological facts.

RW also operated as a Safari Concierge, arranging safaris for clients, making him one of the earliest “expedition outfitters.” Royal and celebrity clients included Kings Edward VII and George V, the Rothschilds, and Winston Churchill.

Rowland Ward was the man who measured the world so it would not be forgotten. His legacy is not merely a book; it is a worldview: that wild animals possess grandeur worth documenting, that hunters are custodians of biological truth, and that the greatest trophies are those preserved with accuracy and integrity.

Interestingly, Ward was not a hunter or an explorer. Yet he became the man through whom all such journeys passed. Ward understood something the hunters themselves rarely grasped: that a hunting trophy is not a boast. A trophy is a datum — a biological fact, a record of the world as it was. Where others saw horns, Ward saw geometry. Where others saw skulls, Ward saw morphology. Where others saw adventure, Ward saw data.

Company Evolution

After Ward’s death in 1912, the company passed through several hands. John Burlace, Ward’s general manager, became majority shareholder. After WWII, Gerald Best purchased the company; his sons continued operations until the 1980s. In 1982, Game Coin (Texas) acquired RW Records. In 1993: After publisher Steve Smith’s death, Robin Halse of Cape Town bought RW Ltd.; later succeeded by his daughter Jane. In 2015, RW moved to California. And in 2020, RW became a non-profit organization, focusing on conservation and record integrity.

Today, RW maintains a global network of official measurers, and species-specific measurement methods across all continents. It is the world’s most internationally recognized big-game record system.