Mark Ford was born in Mickley, Northumberland, in 1868. He served as an apprentice mining engineer at Washington Colliery. He also spent six years attending lectures in mining at Rutherford College, Newcastle.
Ford was the manager for Lady Durham and Sherburn House Collieries and ‘Doctor’ and ‘A’ pits at Bedlington. He returned to Washington as a manager in 1902. Ford left again in 1928 to take charge of Seaham and Vane Tempest Collieries.
Ford became a member of the North England Institute for Mining and Mechanical Engineers in 1895. During his time as a member he contributed several papers to the Transactions. Between 1927 and 1929 Ford was President of the Institute.
Ford also acted as a Justice of Peace for Durham.
“Mark Ford was a man of strong personality, yet of somewhat retiring disposition, who left the stamp of his own high character on everything in which he was concerned. He was a natural leader of men by reason of the trust, confidence and respect which he inspired in all who came into contact with him.” (Memoir of the late Mark Ford Transactions – Institution of Mining Engineers 110 1950-51, 742)
Mark Ford died in Wylam in 1950, aged 83
