Edward Ford ( physician ) Colonel Sir Edward Ford OBE , FRACP , FRCP ( 15 April 1902 – 27 August 1986 ) was an Australian soldier , academic and physician . He played an important role in the anti - malaria campaign in the South West Pacific Area during the Second World War , and in preventative medicine in Australia after the war , but is best known for his " Bibliography of Australian Medicine " . After the war , Ford wrote a thesis on malaria control in the South West Pacific , for which he was awarded his Doctor of Medicine ( MD ) degree by the University of Melbourne in 1946 . He became Director of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at the University of Sydney in 1946 , and Professor of Preventive Medicine in 1947 , concurrently holding these two positions until his 1968 retirement . Education and early life . Edward ( Ted ) Ford was born in Bethanga , Victoria , on 15 April 1902 , the son of Edward John Knight Ford and his wife Mary Doxford , née Armstrong . His first job after leaving Clunes Higher Elementary School was as a telegraph boy at the Postmaster - General ' s Department ( PMG ) , which he joined in April 1917 , later working in its accounts branch . After he matriculated at the age of 24 he enrolled in an arts course at the University of Melbourne , but soon switched to medicine . He supported himself by continuing to work for the PMG by night . He graduated with his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery ( MBBS ) degrees in 1932 , and did his residency at Melbourne Hospital . Ford became a lecturer in anatomy at the university in 1933 , and became a senior lecturer in anatomy and histology in 1934 . While there he met Frederic Wood Jones , who shared and encouraged a passion for books . Ford would later dedicate his " Bibliography of Australian Medicine 1790 – 1900 " to Jones . Ford became interested in physical anthropology , and later tropical medicine . He moved to Sydney where he became a lecturer at the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at the University of Sydney , from which he obtained a Graduate Diploma in Tropical Medicine in 1938 . That year , he travelled to Papua where he conducted a study of sexually transmitted disease among the people of the Trobriand Islands , Goodenough Island and the D ' Entrecasteaux Islands for the Papuan administration . When he returned to Australia in 1939 , he became the Medical Officer in Charge of the Commonwealth Laboratory in Darwin . Military career . In June 1940 , in the early months of the Second World War , Ford volunteered for service with the Second Australian Imperial Force and was commissioned as a major in the Australian Army Medical Corps , receiving the service number NX445 . In March 1941 he was sent to the Middle East as commanding officer of the 1st Australian Mobile Bacteriological Laboratory , and was soon engaged in the diagnosis of a variety of hitherto uncertain diseases . In July 1941 , Ford ' s unit moved to Syria , where it was attached to the 2 / 3rd Casualty Clearing Station , providing the latter with the diagnostic capabilities of a larger general hospital , of which none were available . Ford returned to Australia in March 1942 , and was promoted to lieutenant colonel in August . He was appointed Assistant Director of Pathology , I Corps and New Guinea Force . To combat the danger of dysentery , Ford had all available supplies of sulphaguanidine in Australia shipped up to New Guinea , where Australian forces were fighting a desperate campaign against the Japanese . This was a new drug that Neil Hamilton Fairley had tested in the Middle East , and found to be effective . An initial dose of 4g followed by 2g doses at four hourly intervals was found to rapidly relieve the symptoms and permit the sufferers to travel . New Guinea had numerous tropical diseases that posed a threat to the health and fitness of the troops fighting there , but the biggest medical problem was malaria . In December Ford took his case to the Commander in Chief ( and commander of New Guinea Force ) , General Sir Thomas Blamey . After being lectured by Ford for about an hour on the history and dangers of malaria , and what needed to be done , Blamey said : " I think I understand you , Colonel Ford . If I don ' t do these things , my troops will suffer . " " What I have been trying to tell you , Sir , " Ford replied , " is that if you don ' t do these things , you won ' t have any bloody troops to suffer . " Blamey liked officers who spoke to him like that . The effect was soon felt : Blamey even wrote an article on malaria in New Guinea Force ' s newspaper , " Guinea Gold " , in which he exhorted his men to take proper precautions against malaria . " Our worst enemy in New Guinea is not the Nip , " he wrote , " it ' s the bite . " Gradually , the incidence of the once epidemic disease began to drop . For his part , Ford was mentioned in despatches for " gallant and distinguished services " . In March 1943 , Ford was appointed malariologist at Allied Land Forces Headquarters ( LHQ ) in Melbourne . Here he was charged with responsibility for coordinating the Army ' s overall effort against malaria . In March 1945 , he became Director of Hygiene , Pathology and Entomology at LHQ , and in May he was promoted to colonel . For his services he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire ( Military Division ) on 19 July 1945 for his " skill , energy and initiative of a high order " . He was transferred to the Reserve of Officers on 25 June 1946 . After the war he served in the part - time Citizen Military Forces , and was Director of Army Health from 1953 to 1964 . Academia . After the war , Ford wrote a thesis on malaria control in the South West Pacific , for which he was awarded his Doctor of Medicine ( MD ) degree by the University of Melbourne in 1946 . He received a Rockefeller Fellowship that allowed him to study at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine , where he gained a Diploma of Public Health with distinction in 1947 . Ford became Director of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at the University of Sydney in 1946 , and Professor of Preventive Medicine in 1947 , concurrently holding these two positions until his 1968 retirement . In addition , he was the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and a Fellow of the Senate from 1953 to 1957 , and was Acting Vice Chancellor of the University of Sydney from November 1960 until March 1961 . He was involved in the establishment of the medical school at the University of Western Australia , and was a member of the council of Macquarie University . His wartime Army service was recognised in 1946 by his appointment as a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians ( RACP ) in 1946 . He later served as its Vice President from 1970 to 1972 . He became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians ( RCP ) in London in 1958 , and also of the Royal Australian College of Medical Administrators , the Zoological Society , London , and the Royal Sanitary Institute , London . He was made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australia in 1971 , and of the Royal Australian Historical Society in 1957 . On 1 January 1960 , he was created a knight bachelor . In 1969 the RCP and the RACP awarded him the Neil Hamilton Fairley medal , and he was granted an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Sydney in 1971 . Ford collected books , and he was a curator of the RACP library from 1958 until his death in 1986 . He donated some 2 , 200 items to the library . Today other books from his collection can be found in the libraries of Latrobe University , Macquarie University and the University of Sydney , where the Burkitt - Ford library is named in his honour . In 1976 , he published his " Bibliography of Australian Medicine 1790 – 1900 " . Benedetto ( " Ben " ) Haneman predicted that this work would be " one reason Ford ' s name will be permanently recalled in any study of the historiography of Australian medicine . " Ford , who never married , died at his home in Potts Point , New South Wales , on 27 August 1986 and was cremated . Some of his papers are in the Mitchell Library in Sydney , while others can be found in the National Archives of Australia in Sydney .