John Keith Stanford OBE MC (1892–1971)
was a British ornithologist and writer of the mid-20th century.
He was born in April 1892 the fourth of six children. His father, Edward Stanford, was the second of that name to run the world renowned ‘Stanfords’ travel and mapping company. He was educated at Rugby School and St. John’s College, Oxford. J K Stanford was commissioned into the Suffolk Regiment in 1915 and was attached to the Tank Corps from 1917. He ended the First World War in the rank of captain and was awarded the MC for accumulated act of gallantry.
JK married first a young war widow, Evelyn Lushington née Hirst, in November 1919 shortly after he had been appointed to the Indian Civil Service on 24 October 1919. He arrived in India on 24 December 1919 and his first child was born back in the UK in June 1922.
JK’s first marriage having failed, he married his second wife, Eleanor, née Davies, in 1927 and had three further children, Eleanor and JK’s passion for and success with race courses was a key part of their time in Burma when work and other sporting activities allowed.
He played a part in the Burma Rebellion 1930–31 and was awarded the O.B.E. in 1932. He retired from the Indian Civil Service in 1938 and then took part in Vernay-Cutting’s expedition to the North-East Burma Hills. Between 1927 and 1939 he did much ornithological work in Burma and had his first book, The Birds of Northern Burma, published in 1938.
In 1939 JK was commissioned lieutenant in the National Defence Company of the Royal Berkshire Regiment and in 1940 was transferred to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. He retired in 1945 in the rank of lieutenant colonel and after a short period running Stanford’s in Longacre before the sale of the company in November 1946, was able to concentrate on his literary career and sporting pursuits until his death in 1971.
J K Stanford wrote 27 books, and was a regular contributor to Blackwoods, The Field, Shooting Times, Ibis, the journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. He was, for a period, Vice-President of the British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU). JK was one time president of the Kipling Society and played tennis for Suffolk and was an enthusiastic polo player.
An obituary of J K Stanford was published in the Shooting Times
Abridged Family Tree
