Michael Harry Ford-Smith
Eulogy

Michael was born in Malta at the King George V Merchant Seamen's Memorial Hospital on 2
February 1936, the third child of Sylvia and Leslie Ford-Smith. Leslie worked for Cable and
Wireless as a telegraph engineer and was stationed in Malta at the time of Michael’s birth. His
older sisters were Elizabeth and Daphne. His youngest sister, Hilary, was born in 1945.
In 1939 the family moved to Faial Island in the Azores where Michael was, alongside his
sisters, home-educated by his mother. Michael felt that he had a generally idyllic early
childhood on the island, despite experiencing some sights and sounds of the Second World
War.

Michael returned to England in 1945 and the following year started at Sidcot, a co-educational
Quaker boarding school in Somerset, where qualities of good character and kindness were
valued more than academic achievement. Typical school reports from this time comment that
he was “friendly”, “boisterous” but “good hearted”, and that his lapses in conduct were not
serious.

Michael left Sidcot as Head Boy in 1953. He had been awarded a place at Balliol College,
Oxford. There he grew a beard to complement his full head of curly hair, bought a duffel coat,
listened to Lead Belly’s folk-blues records, read J.R.R. Tolkien and rowed for his College’s
2nd Eight. One summer vacation he took a job as a bus conductor, based out of Cricklewood
Garage. Tall and fit, with a long reach and a loud voice, he was put on the late evening routes.
Michael’s first-class degree in Chemistry was followed by a DPhil in 1959. His thesis title was
entitled ‘Kinetic hydrogen isotope effects in solution’.

After leaving Oxford, Michael moved to the USA to work at Brookhaven National Laboratory,
Long Island, as a Research Associate working on mechanisms of inorganic redox reactions.
He found the lab “the most stimulating working environment I have met” but couldn’t stay
longer than two years there because he had only a Maltese passport.

Michael returned to England and in 1962 started a Junior Research Fellow role at the National
Chemical Laboratory. This resulted in the publication ‘The chemistry of complex cyanides: a literature survey’. He then joined the University of Sussex in 1963 as a lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry. Michael stayed at Sussex for the rest of his career, eventually reaching the position of Reader.

The University of Sussex had then only recently been founded. One colleague mentioned that
Michael had been a much-valued member of the little group of newly arrived members of staff
who had supported each other so well. Another mentioned Michael’s kindness and integrity.
His good sense gave him extra influence in making Sussex the successful university it
became.

Over the years Michael took on several administrative roles that others were reluctant to take,
such as Senior Proctor, Environmental Science Subject Chair, Sub-Dean and Laboratory
Director. A less heavy responsibility was auctioneer for the yearly Senior Common Room
newspaper and magazine sale. The balance of his efforts, however, went into teaching.

Michael was described as being a charismatic Environmental Science lecturer and was known
as a popular, humorous Personal Tutor, always finding time for his students. They felt he was
on their side- as he probably was. Michael particularly enjoyed teaching mature students (as
they were keen!) and working internationally. He welcomed doctoral students from Nigeria,
India, Turkey, Iraq and Iran and spent short periods of time working with universities in
Canada, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia.

Michael occasionally featured in the local media; for instance, to reassure the public that
cannisters of chemicals washed up on the beach at Brighton were not particularly dangerous.
And on another occasion, he gave the police help in identifying vats of unknown liquids found
in a garage belonging to a local forger of £1 coins.

In 1966 Michael married Anne Rainbow, a graduate in English, whom he met at the University
of Sussex. They bought 72 Jevington Drive, Brighton, that same year. Their son Bill was born
in 1971 and John followed in 1973.

In 1974 Michael and the family moved temporarily to Canada to take up a post as Visiting
Assistant Professor at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. After the 9-month contract
was up, Michael, Anne, Bill and John took a memorable 3 months’ camping trip in Canada
and the United States. They travelled around in an old Pontiac, Anne mostly driving and
Michael focusing on map reading. Extreme heat in Arizona caused the boys Lego to melt on
the back shelf of the car. Once they had settled back in Brighton, Anne and Michael’s daughter
Alice was born in 1976.

Michael always liked to be doing something. At Brighton he dug a sandpit, which was very
popular with all ages of children, and a pond that was very popular with frogs. Flint faced
terrace walls were a speciality. The garden was, in places, pure chalk which Michael first
pickaxed; then improved with homemade compost and leaf mould. On the grass verge
opposite the house Michael planted cherry plum seedlings from trees in his parents’ garden
in Harpenden.

Michael spent a lot of time in the Jevington Drive kitchen. He prepared packed lunches for
school, batch cooked, brewed ginger beer, bottled fruit, and made jam, marmalade and
chutney. Vegetables from Michael’s nearby allotment supplemented the weekly shop. When
the children found caterpillars served up with their purple sprouting broccoli, they were
awarded 1p per caterpillar- or 2p for half a caterpillar.

Former neighbours at Jevington Drive fondly remember the family’s many Bonfire Night open
houses. Michael presided over soup and hot dogs in the kitchen while the enormous
community bonfire was lit and many fireworks exploded.

Michael (and Anne) encouraged Bill, John and Alice’s many childhood enthusiasms, whether
they be collecting old car tyres, building a cardboard city in the back garden or digging up the
lawn to create a canal system. Sometimes, work and home met. Not many children had a big
jar of ammonium dichromate to make - under supervision - their own indoor fireworks. Driving
around Sussex at the weekends collecting river water samples for later analysis by Michael’s
students were family outings like no others.

Michael taught the children chess, scrabble and card games (from “Happy Families” through
to “Racing Demon” (which was so aggressive that playing required separate sets of cards that
could be - and were - damaged). He also quietly encouraged open-mindedness and being as
informed as possible but left Bill, John and Alice to come to their own conclusions and make
their own decisions.

It is difficult to think of topics Michael wasn’t interested in or didn’t know something about. He
kept up with current affairs to the end of his life, through his subscriptions to The Guardian
and Private Eye, and watching lots of news

When life was proving tiresome, Michael would retreat to his pipe (until giving it up in 1999, to
general relief), cryptic crosswords, daily diary writing, reading novels, washing up or brasspolishing.
Just before Michael retired in 2001 (after 38 years at the University of Sussex), he and Anne
moved from Brighton to The Spinney on Blatchington Hill, Seaford to a house with a bigger
garden - and even more compost bins.

In retirement Michael relished having more time to do the things he enjoyed. Mondays were
declared laundry day (which he organised with his usual efficiency). Michael also liked being
sent by Anne on errands into Seaford (collecting litter on the way back up ‘the Hill’) but, overall,
he spent as much time as possible working in their garden. In between copious amounts of
weeding, he made a pond, built up an impressive wood pile and laid paths. Michael also
enjoyed counting the number of snails he caught.

Retirement also allowed Michael and Anne to start a programme of visiting European cities,
including Vienna, Bruges, Rome, Bologna, Naples and Munich. Each day was mapped out by
Michael to cover as much art and culture as humanly possible.

Michael was very fortunate to have survived a period in intensive care at Eastbourne District
General Hospital in 2009 (thanks to a consultant who said she had a ‘good feeling’ about him)
and he kept active as long as he could. When forced to slow down, Michael typed up two
decades of Anne’s diaries recording their life in Brighton. This followed work, started as
student, as his generation’s family historian. Michael also enjoyed cutting up prunings for his
compost bins accompanied by Radio 3.