Edward Ford

Sir Edward Ford (15 April 1902 – 27 August 1986) was an Australian soldier, academic and physician. He played an important role in the anti-malaria campaign in the South West Pacific Area during the Second World War, and in preventative medicine in Australia after the war, but is best known for his Bibliography of Australian Medicine.

After the war, Ford wrote a thesis on malaria control in the South West Pacific, for which he was awarded his Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree by the University of Melbourne in 1946. He became Director of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at the University of Sydney in 1946, and Professor of Preventive Medicine in 1947, concurrently holding these two positions until his 1968 retirement.

Education and early life Edward (Ted) Ford was born in Bethanga, Victoria, on 15 April 1902, the son of Edward John Knight Ford and his wife Mary Doxford, née Armstrong. His first job after leaving Clunes Higher Elementary School was as a telegraph boy at the Postmaster-General's Department (PMG), which he joined in April 1917, later working in its accounts branch. After he matriculated at the age of 24 he enrolled in an arts course at the University of Melbourne, but soon switched to medicine. He supported himself by continuing to work for the PMG by night. He graduated with his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degrees in 1932, and did his residency at Melbourne Hospital.

Ford became a lecturer in anatomy at the university in 1933, and became a senior lecturer in anatomy and histology in 1934. While there he met Frederic Wood Jones, who shared and encouraged a passion for books.

In March 1943, Ford was appointed malariologist at Allied Land Forces Headquarters (LHQ) in Melbourne. Here he was charged with responsibility for co-ordinating the Army's overall effort against malaria. In March 1945, he became Director of Hygiene, Pathology and Entomology at LHQ, and in May he was promoted to colonel. for his "skill, energy and initiative of a high order". He was transferred to the Reserve of Officers on 25 June 1946. After the war he served in the part-time Citizen Military Forces, and was Director of Army Health from 1953 to 1964. In 1969 the RCP and the RACP awarded him the Neil Hamilton Fairley medal, and he was granted an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Sydney in 1971. Benedetto ("Ben") Haneman predicted that this work would be "one reason Ford's name will be permanently recalled in any study of the historiography of Australian medicine." Ford, who never married, died at his home in Potts Point, New South Wales, on 27 August 1986 and was cremated.