Clare Ford

Sir (Francis) Clare Ford GCB GCMG PC (1828 – 31 January 1899) was an English diplomat.

The son of Richard Ford, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the 4th Light Dragoons. However, he left the army in 1851, entered the diplomatic service, and became Secretary of Legation at Washington, D.C., where he was acting chargé d'affaires in 1867–1868. In 1871 he was appointed Secretary of Embassy at St Petersburg and in 1872 was transferred to Vienna. He represented the British government in 1875–77 at Halifax before the Halifax Fisheries Commission, by decision of which $5,500,000 was awarded to Great Britain for superior advantages obtained by the United States in the Washington fisheries treaty of 1871. In 1878–1879 he was Minister to the Argentine Republic and during a portion of the time to Uruguay also.

Ford was afterward appointed to similar posts at Rio de Janeiro and at Athens. In 1884 he became Minister (from 1887 Ambassador) to Spain; while there he acted as British commissioner in Paris in 1884 and 1885 to settle the Newfoundland fisheries question. In 1892 he was transferred to Constantinople and in 1893 to Rome. His services to British diplomacy won for him frequent official recognition, including appointment to the Privy Council in 1888.