Robert Webster Ford


Local Hero Robert Ford Not Forgotten

Ulrich Bihlmayer DJ9KR, a regular editor of Germany's Amateur Radio newspaper CQDL, has just written an article about Robert Ford, and was enquiring after him - he reminded me that he would be celebrating his 85th birthday today (27 March 2008).

His 'edited' articles appear below. I would welcome any more news about this famous Rollestonian.

A QSL-Card from Tibet, the “Roof of the World” telling World History

For licensed radio amateurs it is always thrilling to hear another radio amateur working from a far away or „rare“ country. A “rare” country is a country where normally is no amateur radio operator to be found. Such rare countries have been, in the past, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Yemen, and … Tibet. Every ham radio operator is happy, after having “worked” (contacted by radio) the rare country station, to get the confirmation card, the so called “QSL-card. It tells the call sign of the relevant station, the day, time, frequency, transmitting mode (telegraphy, spoken voice) and the signal report. Radio amateurs use to stuck this trophy against the wall or collect it in an album. Finally succeeded!

However QSL cards can also tell interesting stories of the operator or the country. You just have to search in the world wide web. Such an interesting card is the QSL card of the English radio amateur Robert Ford, call sign AC4RF, from Tibet.

Tibet! This country has the smell of something exotic, a trace of Shangri-La. Who were the keen men carrying in foot marches, lasting weeks and months, their “rig” consisting of receivers, transmitters, aerials, morse keys, hand driven generators, and batteries over the high mountains of the Himalayas in order to span their aerials in altitudes of 4500 metres, get glowing their transmission tubes and call “CQ” to the whole world and create huge pile ups of responding amateurs somewhere on the globe?

After the invasion in Tibet in 1949 suddenly the voice of the Himalayas stopped, the pile ups faded out, and the voices went in low water. Tibet slept the sleep of a “Sleeping Beauty”.

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Robert Ford, AC4RF, on Political Mission in Tibet

Who was Robert Ford AC4RF?

Ford was born on 27 March 1923 in Burton-on-Trent in east Staffordshire. He served in the Royal Air Force as a radio technician during World War II in England and India. In 1945 from India he joined the British political Mission in Lhasa, Tibet, as a Radio Officer. Later that year he was transferred to the Political Office in the Himalaya Kingdom of Sikkim, often referred to as the “ante room of Tibet”, and Southern Tibet. With India’s independence in 1947 Ford’s post was taken over by one Indian. Now he was able to fulfil an ambition to return to Lhasa. He had been asked by the Government of Tibet to join its service to start Tibet’s first broadcasting station, train Tibetan radio operators and set up a radio communications network throughout Tibet. He was the first foreigner to be employed by the Government of Tibet and given an official rank.

After a year in Lhasa he travelled the northern route to Chamdo, eastern Tibet’s capital, adjacent to China, from where he established a radio link to Lhasa – another first.

Along with Tibetan officials, including the Governor General, Ford was captured in 1959 by the invading Chinese forces. He was accused of espionage, spreading anti-communist propaganda and murder. He remained political prisoner of the Chinese for about five years, before being released and expelled from China in 1955.

In 1955 he joined the British Diplomatic Service. He served in the Foreign Office in London and at various posts in Vietnam, Indonesia, the USA, Morocco, Angola, Sweden, France, and finally as Consul-General in Geneva from where he retired in 1987. He was awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

In retirement he was able to actively resume his support for Tibet and its people. He has written extensively and lectured on all aspects of Tibetan and Chinese affairs in the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, and the USA.

He remains in contact with the Government of Tibet and His Holiness the Dalai Lama both as a friend and confident. Robert Ford had his first audience with His Holiness in Lhasa in 1945 when His Holiness was a boy of 11 years.

He undertook a country wide lecture tour in India at the request of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. During that lecture tour Robert and his wife Monica were detained under house arrest at Dharamsala by the Indian authorities, as it coincided with the Chinese MP Li Peng’s official visit to India, although Mr Ford had given lecture at the Indian Army College, Civil Service College and in the Lokh Sabha, the Lower House of India.

Ford wrote a book about his experience in Tibet and China “Wind between the Worlds -Captured in Tibet” (Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, Oxford, New York, 1990, and Snow Lion Graphics, Berkeley, CA, USA, 1987). There is also a German edition of his book, title “Gefangen in Tibet”. Both books are available 2nd hand for just a couple of Euros with Amazon in internet.

Internet-Adresses relating to this article:

Information Geography and History of Tibet

www.friends-of-tibet.org.nz/tibet.html

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Part of Robert Ford’s book “Wind between the Worlds – Captured in Tibet” (pages 43 to 46)

“ A radio amateur in Australia told me I had been reported missing.

The rumour had evidently been started deliberately by a pirate station in Peking which was operating on my frequency and using my call sign. I contacted him myself one night, and when I challenged him he shut down at once. His location was deduced by an Australian in Hong Kong who had a directional aerial. What his purpose was I never discovered, but he certainly succeeded in worrying my parents. I was worried for their sake when I was told I had been reported missing in the British press.

Of course I had written letters, but the mail was very slow. Postal arrangements were complicated by the fact that Tibet was not a member of the Universal Postal Union. (…) At the very best a letter from Chamdu took five weeks to reach my home in Burton-on-Trent, travelling by air from India. But that was exceptional. Since the radio link had been established the number of couriers going to Lhasa had been greatly reduced, and sometimes my letters were lying about for weeks in the Foreign Office before someone remembered to pass them to my friend.

I knew that newspaper reports about my part of the world were often alarming and almost always inaccurate, as they were based on rumours picked up outside Tibet, and I was very anxious to let my parents know I was safe. The bad radio conditions lasted longer than usual, and Fox was unable to help. Night after night I sat over my radio, trying desperately to contact England. Then, at last I heard a weak call sign with the prefix G.

It was a general call from G5JF, and as soon as the transmission stopped I gave out my own call sign, AC4RF. There was no reply. My power was too low for my transmissions to be heard in England.

G5JF was picked up by a Swiss amateur, and I listened to their conversation. Finally G5JF said:

“Am on the air every Wednesday, 1630 G.M.T. My position, Burton-on-Trent. CUAGN. (See you again.)”

Burton-on-Trent!

1630 G.M.T. was 10 P.M. Tibetan time, and I was waiting at my radio long before then the following Wednesday. Sure enough G5JF came on with a general call. Again I replied at once, my hand trembling on the key as I almost willed the dots and dashes through the ether.

G5JF picked me up.

He was a tailor named Jefferies, and Wednesday was early-closing day in Burton-on-Trent. He knew me by repute, for he also had read in the press that I was missing. He promised to tell my parents that I was safe, and we arranged to speak again the following Wednesday.

Conditions were better then, and after making contact Jefferies went over on voice.

“Can you operate phone?” he asked me.

“I can, but my power’s too low for you to heard. I can hear you all right, though,” I tapped out.

“I’ve got a surprise for you,” said Jefferies. “Hold on a moment.”

Then I heard another voice say: “Hullo, Robert.”

It was my father.

I was so overcome with emotion that I doubt if I could have replied even if I had been able to use phone. I tapped out an answering message, and at the other end Jefferies transcribed, and my father spoke again. In this way we exchanged news.

The following Wednesday I heard my mother’s voice. After that it became normal for my parents to ring me up on Wednesdays. They were never able to hear my voice, but all they wanted was to know I was safe. For me their voices were everything.

I told some of the Tibetans that I could hear my parents talking from England, but they were not greatly impressed. They could not really understand how far England was. “

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Last updated: 13 June 2008