Number 9 - Geological Curators Group

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apencil and paper. I had only to point to the jar and thendraw a question mark. He drew a man dangling from aparachute and pointed to himself. Thcn he drew a tallbuilding with a Gennan sentry outside, as distinguishedby the shape of theirhelmets. On the side of this buildingwas a dove cot. Opposite was another building with aparapetaroundit. He showed how carrieipigeons alightedon the building before hopping over to the dove cot onthe German H.Q. He then went though the 'chook,chook' routine with imaginary corn. Imanaged toexplainthat you could not put birdlime on a flat surface but hemust rig up some kind of perch below the height of theparapet. I then got an old stuffed bird from a glass caseand put birdlime on its feet. I washed this off with warmwater at our sink and he understood that if he was goingto intercept German messages, he would have to putthem back and clean up the bird or he would have beendiscovered. He departed and I never heard another wordabout it. But it does leave much to the imagination."Richard was a member of the Home Guard for theduration of the war. He continued his work as directorof Watkins andDoncaster, whichincluded the purchaseof many bookcollections. In one such purchaseRichardfound a photograph album and in it were two excellentaerial shots ofBerchtesgaden, Hitler's mountain retreat.A close friend of Richard's was Sir Robert Saundby,second in command of Bomber Command, Royal AirForce, and the photographs were quickly passed on tohim with a message from Richard: "Do your stuff!" Ashort time later they met again with a reply of "What aturn up for the book!" No doubt they proved usefulwhen the barracks at Berchtesgaden was bombed laterin the war. Possibly the most important contributionmade by Richard Ford concerned the planningoperations for the invasion of Europe in 1945:"I was visited by a major who wanted to speak to meprivately, so we coulddiscuss secrets, and we went up tothe roof of the building where we were unlikely to bedisturbed. He explained that in Oxford there was aspecialmap room where acompletemodel of theFrenchcoast was built to scale. They knew all the details fromthe air andmaps etc., but what they didn't know was thedetail of the vegetation. You can't land men on anunknown beach and suddenly find the vegetation is seabuckthorn, which is totally impenetrable to uoops. Theywanted to fill in the gaps of all the vegetation, andsomeone had said that the best source of imfonnationmay be from naturalists or fishermen. So he called onme: did I know any people who had spent the summerholidays there, any collectors? 'Oh yes' saidI, 'we havegot a card index of them. They spend a week or twoabroad, come back to us and ask us to print data labelsgiving details of place, date, time of collection toaccompany the specimens. When we do this we print acopy on a card with the name and address and hold thisin a card index because people go abroad and they wantsome more labels so they write and say "repeat my lastorder" to save telegram space'. I loaned the entire indextothemajorwhichhereturnedin two weeks, andIlearntthat they found several of these collectors quite useful.He took them to Oxford individually, blind-folded themtwo miles from the city, and took them downstairs intothe basement where this model was constructed, wellhidden away. He showed them the model and said "Weunderstand that on Augustthe first 1935 you were there"pointing to the map. They all said the same thing: "Howthe hell did you know?'RichardFord died on 13th September 1996 in Newport,Isle of Wight.AcknowledgementsI thank Richard and Nina Ford and their son Robin fortheir full cooperation and support in writing thisbiography.ReferencesANON. 1961. Obituary of Leonard Talman Ford (1 881-1961). Entomologist Record 73, 67-68.BLOWS, W.T. 1978. Reptiles on the Rocks. Museum ofIsle of Wight Geology, Publication no.2.BLOWS, W.T. 1982. A preliminary account of a newspecimen Polacanthus foxi (Ankylosauria, Reptilia)from the Wealden of the Isle of Wight. Proceedingsof the Isle of Wight Natural History andArchaeological Society for 1980,7(5), 303-306.BLOWS, W.T. 1983. William Fox (1813-1881), aneglected dinosaur collector of the Isle of Wight.Archives of Natural History 11(2), 299-313.BLOWS, W.T. 1987. The armoured dinosaur Polacanthusfoxi from the Lower Cretaceous of the Isle of Wight.Palaeontology 30(3), 557-580.BOSMA, A.A. 1974. Rodent Biostratigraphy of theEocene-Oligocene transitional strata of the Isle ofWight. Utrecht Micropaleontological Bulletins,Special Publication I, 1-128.BOSMA, A.A. and de BRUIJN, H. 1979. Eocene andOligocene Gliridae (Rodentia; Mammalia) from theIsle of Wight, England. Part I: The Giravus priscus-Gliravus fordi lineage. Proceedings of the KoninklijkeNederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, Series B:Palaeontology, Geology, Physics and Chemistry82(4), 367-384.BOSMA, A.A. and INSOLE, A.N. 1972. Theridomyinae(Rodentia; Mammalia) from the Osborne Beds (LateEocene), Isle of Wight, England. Proceedings of theKoninklijke Nederlandse Akademie vanWetenschappen, Series B: Palaeontology, Geology,Physics and Chemistry 75(2), 133-144.BUFFETAUT, E. and FORD, R.L.E. 1979. Thecrocodilian Bernissartia in the Wealden of the Isle ofWight. Palaeontology 22(4), 905-912.
BUTLER, P.M. and FORD, R.L.E. 1975. Discovery ofCretaceous Mammals on the Isle of Wight.Proceedings of the Isle of Wight Natural History andArchaeological Society 6(10), 662-663.CHANDLER, M.E.J. 1978. Supplement to the LowerTertiary Floras of Southern England, Part 5, inTertiary Research, Special Publication 4. TertiaryResearch <strong>Group</strong>, London.DALEY, B. and INSOLE A. 1986 (1996 reprint). The Isleof Wight. The Geologists' Association, Guide 25.FORD, R.L.E. 1950. Eggs and Nests of British Birds.Adam and Charles Black, London.FORD, R.L.E. 1951. Pond Life. Adam and Charles Black,London.FORD, R.L.E. 1953. British Wild Animals. Adam andCharles Black, London.FORD, R.L.E. 1954. British Reptiles and Amphibians.Adam and Charles Black, London.FORD, R.L.E. 1963. Practical Entomology. Butler andTanner, London.FORD, R.L.E. 1967. Hampshire's Age of Crocodiles. TheIllustrated London News 250, (6660 March).FORD, R.L.E. 1969. Practical Entomology (revisededition). Butler and Tanner, London.FORD, R.L.E. 1971. A new fossil mammal from theHamstead Beds (Oligocene). Proceedings of the Isle ofWight Natural History and Archaeological Society6(6), 400-401.FORD, R.L.E. 1972. Two more fossil mammals new tothe Hamstead Beds (Oligocene). Proceedings of theIsle of Wight Natural History and ArchaeologicalSociety 6(7), 493.FORD, R.L.E. 1973. Studying Insects - A Practical Guide.Frederick Warne, London.FORD, R.L.E. 1974. Mutation in the carapace of the fossilturtle Emys from the Hamstead Beds (Oligocene).Proceedings of the Isle of Wight Natural History andArchaeological Society 6(9), 610-61 1.FORD, R.L.E. 1975. Flint scraper from Plateau Gravel atCranmore. Proceedings of the lsle of Wight NaturalHistory and Archaeological Society 6(10), 668.FORD, R.L.E. 1976a. The influence of the Microgasterinion the populations of British Rhopalocera(Hymenoptera. Braconidae). Entomologist's Gazette27,205-210.FORD, R.L.E. 1976b. Spiral rotation in the larva of Pierisbrassicae. Proceedings of the Isle of Wight NaturalHistory and Archaeological Society 7(1), 43-44.FORD, R.L.E. 1976~. Dipterous Parasites of Ladybirds.Proceedings of the Isle ofWight Natural History andArchaeological Society (1979), 7 (l), 47.FORD, R.L.E. 1979. Migration of insects in 1977.Proceedings of the Isle of Wight Natural History andArchaeological Society 7(2), 100.GALTON, P.M. 1974. The Ornithischian dinosaurHypsilophodon from the Wealden of the Isle of Wight.Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History),Geology 25(1), 1-152c.MESZOELY C.A.M. and FORD, R.L.E. 1976. Eoceneglass-lizard Ophisaurus (Anguidae) from the BritishIsles. Copeia 2, 407-408.MESZOELY C.A.M., SPINAR Z.V. and FORD, R.L.E.1984. A new Palaeobatrachid frog from the Eocene ofthe British Isles. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology3(3), 143-147.OSBORNE WHITE, H.J. 1921. A short account of thegeology of the Isle of Wight. <strong>Geological</strong> Survey ofGreat Britain.PA'ITERSON, C. 1966. British Wealden Sharks. Bulletinof the British Museum (Natural History), Geology 11,283-350.RAGE, J.C. and FORD, R.L.E. 1980. Amphibians andSquamates from the Upper Eocene of the Isle ofWight. Tertiary Research 3(2), 47-60.APPENDIX 1: Specimens donated by RichardFord to the Department of Palaeontology ofthe Natural History Museum, London.1925 Fragment of Chalk Sponge in Flint from Kent.1937 26 Belemnites from the Lias of Channouth, Dorset.1939 10 gastropods from the Oligocene of the Isle ofWight.1939 l l Bryozoa from the Chalk of Southern England.1939 Teredo bored wood from Surrey.1953 1 echinoid with a worm burrow, from Surrey.1954 1 sponge from the Chalk of Kent.1958 Bryozoan from the Upper Greensand.1962 Vivianite crystals on an ammonite.l962 Fish from the Hamstead Beds, Isle of Wight.1963 25 mollusca, 4 blocks containing Erodona plana, lbird bone and crocodile fragments from the Isle ofWight.1965 11 fossil plants from the Isle of Wight including newspecies.1967 1 head of Rhinocephalus planiceps from the LondonClay of Sheppy.l983 22 sharks teeth Scapanorhynchus and Squatina fromthe Weald of the Isle of Wight.1986 39 rodentteeth (Eomys), Lower Oligocene, BouldnorCliff, Isle of Wight.Total conservative estimate of palaeontological specimensdonated, including those not recorded is 156.
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Number 9 - Geological Curators Group

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