Born at Castlerea, Co Roscommon, Ireland on 25 July 1907, fourth child and second son of the Rev Robert Irvine Ford, BD, Rector of the parish and Rural Dean of Elphin, and his wife Dora Frances Elizabeth Maunsell, whose brother C B Maunsell, FRCSI, was surgeon to Mercer's Hospital, Dublin. Ian Ford was educated at the King's Hospital School, where he was a scholar, and Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated third in his year 1931, winning prizes in obstetrics and surgery. He held house appointments at Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, Dublin, Bridgewater Hospital, Somerset, Salford Royal Hospital, and in London at All Saints and the Connaught Hospitals. He took the Fellowship in 1937, was appointed resident surgical officer at Bury Infirmary, Lancashire and settled there for the rest of his career. Ill-health made him ineligible for military service in the second world war, to his great disappointment, and he had to be content with extra work at home and service in the Home Guard. He went into general practice in Rossendale in partnership with Ralph Crompton, LRCP, MRCS, of Ramsbottom, but later restricted himself entirely to surgery. He lived at Newlands, Edenfield, and became surgeon to Bury General Hospital and other hospitals in Rossendale, and was a member of the Hospitals Management Committee for Bury and Rossendale. He was chairman of the Bury Division of the British Medical Association in 1948. As a young man he was a keen player of cricket and rugby, but was restricted by ill-health in middle age and found his recreation in exploring wild countrysides in England, Scotland and Ireland. He married in 1952 Dr Breta Barry, MB BCh, NUT, and continued in full surgical practice for nearly twenty years. He died suddenly from myocardial infarction, soon after performing two major operations, on 17 December 1971 aged sixty-four, and was survived by his wife.