John Keith Stanford OBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 MC

Military Cross

The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....

 (1892–1971) was a British writer of the mid 20th century.

He was educated at Rugby School

Rugby School

Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...

 and St. John's College, Oxford. Stanford was commissioned into the Suffolk Regiment

Suffolk Regiment

The Suffolk Regiment was an infantry regiment of the line in the British Army with a history dating back to 1685. It saw service for three centuries, before being amalgamated with the Royal Norfolk Regiment as the 1st East Anglian Regiment in 1959...

 in 1915 and was attached to the Tank Corps

Royal Tank Regiment

The Royal Tank Regiment is an armoured regiment of the British Army. It was formerly known as the Tank Corps and the Royal Tank Corps. It is part of the Royal Armoured Corps and is made up of two operational regiments, the 1st Royal Tank Regiment and the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment...

 from 1917. He ended the First World War with the rank of Captain

Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)

Captain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force...

.

Appointed to the Indian Civil Service on 24th October,1919. Arrived in India on 24th December, 1919.

Deputy Director of Commercial Intelligence, Calcutta, January 1922.
Services replaced at the government of Burma’s disposal, June 1923.
Under Secretary Home and Police Department, december 1923.
Officiating Deputy Commissioner, June 1924
Registrar, High Court, Rangoon, June 1925
Officiating Deputy Commissioner, June 1927
He married his second wife, Eleanor, née Davies, in 1927.
District Commissioner of Prome District 1929
District Commissioner of Insein District 1930
Following his time in Prome & Insein District he played a part in the Burma Rebellion 1930-31.
O.B.E., 1932.
Secretary Revenue Department, Burma, June 1932.
He then became the Deputy Commissioner for Myitkyina from 1932-36.
He retired 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. Amongst his other publications: The Birds of Northern Burma, 1938.

In 1939, he was commissioned Lieutenant

Lieutenant

A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 in the National Defence Companies. In 1940, Stanford transferred to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps

Royal Army Ordnance Corps

The Royal Army Ordnance Corps was a corps of the British Army. It dealt only with the supply and maintenance of weaponry, munitions and other military equipment until 1965, when it took over most other supply functions, as well as the provision of staff clerks, from the Royal Army Service...

. He retired in 1945 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Between the wars, Stanford was in the Indian Civil Service, for much of the time in Burma. He wrote 27 books, and was a regular contributor to The Field

The Field (magazine)

The Field is the world's oldest country and field sports magazine, having been published continuously since 1853.The famous sportsman Robert Smith Surtees, the creator of Jorrocks, was the driving force behind the initial publication...

, Shooting Times

Shooting Times

Shooting Times and Country Magazine, more commonly known as the Shooting Times, is a British shooting and firearms magazine, published by IPC Media. The magazine also features articles on hunting, fishing, deer stalking, gamekeeping, gundogs and wildlife...

, Ibis

Ibis (journal)

Ibis, subtitled the International Journal of Avian Science, is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the British Ornithologists' Union. Topics covered include ecology, conservation, behaviour, palaeontology, and taxonomy of birds. The editor-in-chief is Paul F. Donald. The journal is published by...

, the journal of the Bombay Natural History Society

Bombay Natural History Society

The Bombay Natural History Society, founded on 15 September 1883, is one of the largest non-governmental organizations in India engaged in conservation and biodiversity research. It supports many research efforts through grants, and publishes the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. Many...

, and other magazines. He was, for a period, Vice-President of the British Ornithologists' Union

British Ornithologists' Union

The British Ornithologists' Union aims to encourage the study of birds in Britain, Europe and elsewhere, in order to understand their biology and to aid their conservation....

 (BOU).

Many of his books are about country sports (hunting

Hunting

Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...

 and shooting

Shooting

Shooting is the act or process of firing rifles, shotguns or other projectile weapons such as bows or crossbows. Even the firing of artillery, rockets and missiles can be called shooting. A person who specializes in shooting is a marksman...

), ornithology

Ornithology

Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...

, or British colonial life between the wars.

His grand-daughter Melissa Stanford is the wife of William Pleydell-Bouverie, 9th Earl of Radnor

William Pleydell-Bouverie, 9th Earl of Radnor

William Pleydell-Bouverie, 9th Earl of Radnor , of Longford Castle, Wiltshire, is an English peer and landowner.The son of Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, 8th Earl of Radnor and Anne Garden Seth-Smith, daughter of Donald Farquharson Seth-Smith, Pleydell-Bouverie was educated at Harrow and the Royal...

.

List of works

(dates from Bodleian Library catalogue)

• The Twelfth (1944, rev. 1964 as The Twelfth and After: being the life and death of George Hysteron-Proteron
  George Hysteron-Proteron
  Colonel the Hon. George Hysteron-Proteron is a fictional character created by author J. K. Stanford, He is introduced as a British soldier, sporting gun, and Lord of the manor of Five Mile Wallop, Cambridgeshire...
  
  )
• Far Ridges: a record of travel in north-eastern Burma 1938-9 (1946)
• The Awl-Birds (1949)
• Guns Wanted (1949)
• Bledgrave Hall (1950)
• Reverie of a Qu'Hai, & other Stories (1951)
• Last Chukker (1951)
• No Sportsman at All (1952)
• House of Edward Stanford Ltd. 1852–1952", by Lt Col J. K. Stanford and E. G. Godfrey (1952)
• Full Moon at Sweatenham: a nightmare (1953)
• A Bewilderment of Birds (1954)
• British Friesians: A History of the Breed (1956)
• Fox Me: the story of a cub (1958)
• Jimmy Bundobust (1958)
• Death of a Vulpicide (1960)
• Ladies in the Sun: the Memsahibs' India, 1790–1860 (1962)
• Broken Lanterns (1962)
• And Some in Horses (1965)
• Tail of an Army (1966)
• A Keeper's Country (1968, re-issued 1989)
• The Complex Gun (1968)
• Partridge Shooting

Sources