Reduced to letters after a name, how much they tell us about the man, and his eclecticism, but how little of him. All who knew Ted Ford testify to three outstanding personal characteristics, rarely so genuinely and openly evident in any one man: an ever-present gentleness, a great depth of kindness and understanding (three qualities I think as one, for they were so intimately associated), a wonderful generosity and a sincere humility, none of which precluded firmness when the occasion demanded. To these must be added a keen sense of humour and a fine wit, sometimes manifest not simply in the words he spoke but betrayed by the associated slight smile, the lift of an eyebrow or a twinkle in the eye. He had an infinite fund of historical anecdotes about people and events - how often we wished there was a hidden tape recorder! Stories which he recounted in his own inimitable style, often in a series of well-selected phrases rather than a consecutive series of sentences, often deliberately leaving just a little to the imagination of the listener. A connoisseur of good food, good wine, and good company (and no mean cook himself), he was the most superb dinner guest, a delightful conversationalist, well-informed on an enormous range of subjects - although just occasionally he might empty his pipe in a slightly indiscriminate manner.

To recall some of the highlights of Sir Edward's career, it is appropriate that I should largely follow the biographical introduction written by Alison Holster for the booklet entitled Ford and Australian Medical History, published by the Library of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1978. Over the 15 years or so that Alison was Librarian to the College, she and Sir Edward established a close bond of affection, and she was, among his most regular visitors in his later years when he largely retired to his flat, his books and his exquisite collection of Australian art - and of course, he had known most of the artists personally, just as he knew many of the authors of his Australian literature.

He was born in Bethanga, Victoria, and decided at the age of 24, after a year of Arts, to adopt medicine as a career. He supported himself by working in the Postal Department at night, doing medicine by day, and steadily reading through the shelves of the Melbourne Public Library in between. He graduated in 1932 at the age of 30 years from the University of Melbourne. After a period of hospital practice he entered academic medicine as Lecturer, later Senior Lecturer, in Anatomy and Histology where, like his colleague and lifelong friend, Kenneth Russell, he came under the charismatic influence of Frederick Wood Jones, himself a great bibliophile. During this time he developed an interest in physicial anthropology and later in tropical medicine. He became a medical officer in the Commonwealth Department of Health in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in Sydney, and took its Diploma in Tropical Medicine in 1938. In the same year he undertook for the Papuan Administration a study of the epidemiology of venereal disease in the island and coastal tribal groups of Papua, including the Trobriand Islands, Goodenough Island and the d'Entrecasteaux Islands, but his interests extended much more widely than this subject suggests, notably to an informed appreciation of native art and artefacts.

On his return to Australia, Edward Ford became Medical Officer in charge of the Commonwealth Laboratory at Darwin. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, he was released to enlist in the AIF as Commanding Officer, First Australian Mobile Bacteriological Laboratory in the Middle East. By 1946 he was Director of Hygiene, Pathology and Entomology for the Australian Military Forces. Sir Edward played a major role in ensuring adequate protection against malaria for Australian and other forces in the South Pacific; I have heard him tell the story of his priceless observation to General Blamey of what would happen to his Army if he sent it back over the Owen Stanleys. I should like to have known Ted at this stage of his career as he would not conceivably have conformed to the prototype of a senior army officer in my imagination (nor, in fact, did he). Despite this limitation, he was mentioned in dispatches in 1943 and awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1945.

In 1946, having graduated MD at the University of Melbourne with a thesis on malaria in the South-West Pacific, he was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship. He studied at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, gaining the Diploma of Public Health with distinction in 1947. In 1946 he was appointed Director of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and in 1947 Professor of Preventive Medicine in the University of Sydney, positions which he held until retirement in 1968. Other University service included Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Fellow of the Senate between 1953 and 1957, and Acting Vice-Chancellor from November 1960 to March 1961. He participated in the foundation of the Medical School of the University of Western Australia and became a member of the first Council of Macquarie University. He was also a member of the Committee on the Future of Tertiary Education in Australia. Outside the University Sir Edward's influence in medical affairs spread far afield. He served on innumerable committees at a state, national and international level, including the National Health and Medical Research Council and its committees, the World Health Organisation in the field of medical education and research, and as a member of the Australian medical delegation to China in 1957. He was knighted in 1960.

Very early in his life Ted developed a love of books and learning. He was a keen and internationally known book collector, mainly in the field of medicine and its history, but also in certain aspects of Australian literature. His books were lovingly maintained, and often annotated in his neat, clear angular script, so that the reader may know their history and their associations. He was the leading authority on the history of Australian medicine, the most notable of his contributions being his Bibliography of Australian Medicine 1790-1900, compiled in the meticulous manner of his friend and mentor in this area, Judge J A Ferguson, but there were also authoritative and important journal articles (see Gandevia, B, Holster, A, & Simpson, S. An Annotated Bibliography of the History of Medicine and Health in Australia, Sydney 1984).

Sir Edward was admitted to Fellowship of The Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1946 in recognition of his distinguished medical contribution to the armed services. He participated actively in College affairs as member of the Editorial Committee of the Australasian Annals of Medicine (now the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Medicine) from 1951 to 1965, the Research Advisory Committee from 1952 to 1963, and the Committee on Occupational Health from 1952 to 1955. He was Vice-President of the College from 1970 to 1972.

In 1958 Sir Edward became Curator of the Historical Library and Chairman of the Library Committee of the College. It is testimony to his gentle leadership, knowledge and understanding, as well as to his outstandingly generous material gifts, that the College Library has developed into a nationally important reference collection in the history of medicine generally as well as in its field of special responsibility, the history of medicine in Australia. Ted summarised his own career and his own philosophy when he declined representation in a book on Australia's great biologists. Writing in the third person to the editors, and signing as his own secretary, he stated that Sir Edward regarded himself as a physician, a teacher and an historian. Incidentally, I have only just learnt that on controversial issues on which he could not express a public view, he wrote letters to the newspapers under his sister's married name!

In some subtle ways I believe Ted identified with William Redfern, the convict surgeon of the first fleet who lived to render significant service to the health and welfare of his former associates, and who was transported for no other offence than an adherence to his youthful principles and ideals. If this should seem far fetched, let me read you his concluding words from his biography of Redfern:

He was rich in the attributes that men admire. He was stalwart in adversity, a helper of the weak, a spokesman for the oppressed, a great citizen and a good doctor.