Robert Ford, independent Tibet's first radio operator, dies at 90
Robert Webster Ford, the first Westerner employed as a civil servant by the then-independent Tibetan government and who helped set up the country's radio network, was remembered in a prayer service in London on Friday. The only European captured by Chinese forces during the 1950 invasion of Tibet, Ford died in the British capital on September 20 aged 90 after a short illness.
Robert Ford
1923-2013
Robert Webster Ford, the first Westerner employed as a civil servant by the then-independent Tibetan government and who helped set up the country's radio network, was remembered in a prayer service in London on Friday. The only European captured by Chinese forces during the 1950 invasion of Tibet, Ford died in the British capital on September 20 aged 90 after a short illness.
The Dalai Lama led tributes at the ceremony, held at the Jamyang Buddhist Centre.
"I am saddened to learn of the passing of my friend, Robert Ford. He occupies a special place in the history of Tibet," the Dalai Lama said.
"Since my coming into exile in 1959, your father and I have been in regular contact and I have enjoyed meeting him on several occasions," he wrote in the letter addressed to Ford's family.
"My father would have been very touched by the traditional prayers. He often said the happiest days of his life were in Tibet despite what happened to him," said Ford's son, Giles who attended the prayer service.