Robert Webster Ford CBE (27 March 1923 – 20 September 2013) was a British radio officer who worked in Tibet in the late 1940s.[1][2] He was one of the few Westerners to be appointed by the Government of Tibet in the period of de facto independence between 1912 and the year 1950 when the Chinese army marched on Chamdo. He was arrested and jailed for five years by the Chinese. In 1994, he declared that he "had the opportunity to witness and experience at first hand the reality of Tibetan independence."[3] In 1956 he was appointed at the British Diplomatic Service and served in the Foreign Office.
- ^ Central Tibetan Administration, Tibetan Parliament Mourns Robert Ford’s Demise, Tibet.net, 27 September 2013.
- ^ "Robert Ford; Obituaries; RAF radio officer in Tibet who endured three years' brainwashing at the hands of the Chinese". The Daily Telegraph. 6 October 2013. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
Robert Ford, who has died aged 90, was a career diplomat who, as a young RAF radio officer in Tibet, was imprisoned and brainwashed by the Chinese.
- ^ M. G. Chikara, Buddhism, Reincarnation, and Dalai Lamas of Tibet, A P H Publishing, 1998, 236 p., Annexure III, Some personal Observations by Robert Ford, pp. 169-173.