Sir Francis Clare Ford, diplomat, was born in London, the son of Richard Ford (1796-1858) and Harriet Capel. From them he inherited the numerous paintings and drawings by Wilson which had descended from Benjamin Booth. He began his career in the army as a cornet in the 4th light dragoons in 1846. Promoted lieutenant in 1849, he later sold out and entered the diplomatic service in the modest position of unpaid attaché. To climb to the position of secretary of legation took him fifteen years, during which he lived in Naples (1852), Munich (1855), and Paris (1856), became paid attaché in Lisbon in 1857, and was transferred from there to Brussels, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, and finally Vienna in 1864. He also served as secretary of legation at Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, and Washington, DC. In 1857 Ford married Annie, daughter of the marqués de Garofalo, of Naples. They had at least two sons, one of whom, John Gorman Ford, was also a diplomat. Francis Ford died at the Hôtel Impérial, Paris, on 31 January 1899 and was buried in the cemetery of Boulogne-sur-Seine.
