Edmund Brisco ('Henry') Ford was born in 1901. He was educated at St. Bee's College in Cumberland. He attended Wadham College, Oxford, graduating in zoology in 1924. He was taught genetics by Julian Huxley. He then undertook joint research in the Departments of Zoology and Entomology and graduated B.Sc. in 1927. He was appointed University Demonstrator in Zoology in the same year and in 1933, in addition to the University position, Lecturer in University College.

Ford specialised in genetics and was appointed University Reader in Genetics in 1939. He had a long working relationship with R.A. Fisher. He was Director of the Genetics Laboratory, 1952-1969, and Professor of Ecological Genetics 1963-1969. He then became Emeritus Professor of Ecological Genetics, and an Honorary Fellow of Wadham College. He was elected FRS in 1946, and awarded the Darwin Medal in 1954. He died in 1988.

Ford was the author of many articles and a number of important and influential books: Mendelism and Evolution, The Study of Heredity, Genetics for Medical Students, Butterflies, Moths, Ecological Genetics, Genetic Polymorphism, Genetics and Adaptation, Understanding Genetics and Taking Genetics into the Countryside.