Frank Langford was born on 26 August 1900 in Galatz, Romania, the first child of William Morris Langford, a civil engineer and Maria, née Chodkowska, of Polish birth. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School, Wycliffe College and the University of Bristol. He qualified in 1924, proceeding FRCS in 1926, but his plans for a surgical career had to be abandoned because of the onset of pulmonary tuberculosis. Experience of this disease and the sanatoria treatment which then prevailed caused him to seek a new career in preventative medicine. He held residential posts at sanatoria in Bath and Ashford before being appointed deputy medical superintendent to the Westmoreland Council Sanatorium at Meathop. He then moved to Kirkcaldy Fever Hospital and in 1936 became assistant medical officer to Surrey County Council. In 1941 he moved to Lewes as deputy county medical officer for East Sussex, being promoted to county medical officer in 1946, remaining in this post for over twenty years. At the time of this appointment there was great confusion in the medical profession with the difficult resettlement of large numbers of demobilised medical officers and the imminent start of the National Health Service. Frank Langford with his quiet unflappable manner succeeded superbly in the reorganisation of medicine in the county of Sussex. One of the reasons for his success was that he knew and respected as individuals all his staff who in turn gave him their loyalty and their high regard. He was Chairman of the Sussex Branch of the British Medical Association and pursued his extracurricular interests of gardening, field botany, archaeology and country dancing with enthusiasm. He died in Lewes on 2 September 1984 after a long illness and was survived by his wife Amy whom he had married in 1935. There were no children.