Ebenezer Ford

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

ARCS DIC (22 September 1890 – 14 October 1974) was a British marine zoologist. He was generally known as Ebb Ford. He was a competent artist and created several thousand "specimen drawings". From 1924 to 1929 he conducted a major study of the British herring shoals. He was a strong supporter of the Sea-Fishing Industry Act of 1933.

Life

He was born on 22 September 1890 in

Hove Hove ( ) is a seaside resort in East Sussex, England. Alongside Brighton, it is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove. Originally a fishing village surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th century in respon ...

, England, the son of George Horace Ford. His younger brother, Percy Ford, became an economist and was the first Professor of Economics at the

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

. He was educated at

Varndean School Varndean School is a secondary school serving a large area of Brighton, England. In 2013, 2017 and 2022, Ofsted inspectors described Varndean as a 'Good' school. Varndean shares the Surrenden Campus with Balfour Primary School, Dorothy String ...

and

Brighton College Brighton College is a fee-charging, co-educational, boarding and day public school for boys and girls aged 3 to 18 in Brighton and Hove, England. The school has three sites: Brighton College (the senior school, ages 11 to 18), Brighton Co ...

for two years before going to

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

to study Science under

Clifford Dobell Cecil Clifford Dobell FRS (22 February 1886, Birkenhead – 23 December 1949, London) was a biologist, specifically a protozoologist. He studied intestinal amoebae, and algae. He was a leading authority on the history of protistology. Life Clif ...

. He specialised in marine zoology. Ford did research as a Huxley Scholar and was awarded the Sarah Marshall Exhibition in 1913. In the same year he was given the post of Assistant Naturalist at the Plymouth Laboratory. As with many of his generation, his plans were disrupted by the outbreak of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. He first volunteered and joined the

Sussex Yeomanry The Sussex Yeomanry is a yeomanry regiment of the British Army dating from 1794. It was initially formed when there was a threat of French invasion during the Napoleonic Wars. After being reformed in the Second Boer War, it served in the World Wa ...

, but then applied for an officer's commission, and in July 1915 joined the

Royal Fusiliers The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. It was known as the 7th Regiment of Foot until the Childers Reforms of 1881. The regiment served in many war ...

. He saw active service in France and was wounded at the

Battle of Passchendaele The Third Battle of Ypres (; ; ), also known as the Battle of Passchendaele ( ), was a campaign of the First World War, fought by the Allies of World War I, Allies against the German Empire. The battle took place on the Western Front (World Wa ...

in 1917. In 1919, he returned to

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

to resume his role as Assistant Naturalist, and was immediately promoted to fisheries naturalist. Remaining in Plymouth, he eventually rose to be assistant director of the laboratory in 1935. His career was again interrupted by the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

during which, after a period in the

Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting ...

, he served in Air Intelligence in the Air Ministry in London starting in November 1941. In 1949, he left Plymouth to become Director of the Marine Station at Millport, in replacement of Richard Elmhirst. He then became first full-time Secretary of the Scottish Marine Biological Association. In 1950 he was elected a fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

. His proposers were

Maurice Yonge Sir Charles Maurice Yonge, CBE, FRS FRSE (9 December 1899 – 17 March 1986) was an English marine zoologist. Life Charles Maurice Yonge was born in Silcoates School near Wakefield in Yorkshire in 1899 the son of John Arthur Yonge (1865–1 ...

, Charles Wynford Parsons,

Robert Campbell Garry Robert Campbell Garry, OBE, FRSE, (21 April 1900 – 16 April 1993) was a British physician and Professor of Medicine at the University of St Andrews and the University of Glasgow. During World War II, as an expert on human physiology, he ad ...

, and Sir James Wilfred Cook. He retired in March 1956 and returned to his native county of

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

, naming his house Keppel after the Keppel pier at Millport. He received the Order of the British Empire (OBE) on New Year's Day 1957 for services to marine science.''

The London Gazette ''The London Gazette'', known generally as ''The Gazette'', is one of the official journals of record or government gazettes of the Government of the United Kingdom, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, i ...

'', 1 January 1957 He died at the King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst, on 14 October 1974.

Publications

Ford wrote in the Fishing News magazine under the pen-name of Quibbon. *''Nuclear division of the Limax Amoeba'' (1913) *''Statistical Methods for Research Workers'' (1925)

Family

He married Alice Gurr in August 1916. She died in 1950. They had one daughter, Joan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Ebenezer 1890 births 1974 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 20th-century British zoologists