Edward Ford (courtier)

FRSA
FRSA
Born	Edward William Spencer Ford; 24 July 1910; Repton, Derbyshire, England
Died	19 November 2006 (aged 96)
Nationality	English
Known for	Courtier
Spouse	Virginia Brand

Sir Edward William Spencer Ford

Queen Elizabeth II. He is perhaps best known for writing to Elizabeth II’s private secretary regarding the 40th year of her reign, having hoped that the Queen would experience an annus mirabilis but instead finding 1992 an annus horribilis. She used the phrase in a speech to describe a year in which one of her four children was divorced, two more formally separated from their spouses, and Windsor Castle caught fire

.

Family background

Ford was a

royal chaplain. His brother Neville Ford played cricket for Derbyshire, and three of his uncles played first-class cricket, including Francis Ford who played for England

.

Education

Ford was at West Downs School and was then a King's Scholar at Eton. He won an open scholarship to read Classics at New College, Oxford (where he was elected an Honorary Fellow in 1982). He obtained a first in Mods and second in Greats.

Career

He was tutor to John Lascelles, son of Sir Alan Lascelles, Private Secretary to King George VI, in 1933. He was a Harmsworth scholar at Middle Temple, before tutoring Prince (later King) Farouk of Egypt from 1935–36. He was called to the Bar in 1937 and briefly practised law until 1939.

Military service

Ford had been commissioned as a

Staff College in Haifa, Israel

.

After the war, at the invitation of Sir Alan Lascelles, he entered Royal Service as Assistant Private Secretary to King George VI, 1946–52, and then served in the same office to Elizabeth II until 1967. Ford was telephoned by the King's Private Secretary, Sir Alan Lascelles, with news of the King's death at

Princess Margaret

caused a crisis early in Queen Elizabeth's reign.

Resignation

Ford resigned from the Royal Household in 1967, after Sir

Lord Brand, at Eydon Hall in Northamptonshire. Later, he was Secretary and Registrar of the Order of Merit (for which he received an honorarium

of £100) from 1975–2003.

Annus Horribilis

Ford used the

accession, Ford chided himself for a grammatical error, saying that, in order to describe a horrible year, he properly should have written "annus horrendus". The Queen later used the phrase in a speech: "1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an 'Annus Horribilis'."^[1]

Honours

For his service to the Crown, Edward Ford was appointed Member of the

Goldsmiths' Company

in 1979.

He was the literary executor of Sir Alan Lascelles. Despite the sensitive nature of their contents, he managed to secure permission for Sir Alan's wartime diaries to be published. King's Counsellor was launched in 2006, a few weeks before his death.

Personal life

He married his wife, Virginia, in 1949, the widow of John Metcalfe Polk. She was the daughter of the banker

Nancy Astor

. His wife died in 1995.

Death

He died in London, on the 19th of November 2006, aged 96. He was survived by he and Virginia’s two sons and a stepson. A second stepson predeceased him.

References

^ "Obituary: Sir Edward Ford". The Guardian. 28 November 2006. Retrieved 11 September 2018.

Obituary^{[dead link]}, The Daily Telegraph, 21 November 2006
Obituary, The Times, 21 November 2006
Obituary, The Independent, 23 November 2006
Obituary, The Guardian, 28 November 2006

[1] "Obituary: Sir Edward Ford". The Guardian. 28 November 2006. Retrieved 11 September 2018.

[1]

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