Herbert ("Bert") Vernon Foord (22 December 1930, in Appleby,

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...

– 31 July 2001, in

Stoke Mandeville Stoke Mandeville is a village and civil parish in the Vale of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located three miles (4.9 km) from Aylesbury and 3.4 miles (5.5 km) from the market town of Wendover. Although a separate civil p ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

meteorologist and

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

weather forecaster during the 1960s and early 1970s. The son of a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

serviceman, Foord attended

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

and joined the UK Meteorological Office as a trainee forecaster in 1947. His first posting was to the

Eskdalemuir Observatory The Eskdalemuir Observatory is a UK national environmental observatory located near Eskdalemuir, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Built in 1904, its remote location was chosen to minimise electrical interference with geomagnetic instruments, whic ...

in the Scottish borders, where he worked between 1950 and 1953, followed by three years' service on the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

weather ship A weather ship, or ocean station vessel, was a ship stationed in the ocean for surface and upper air meteorological observations for use in weather forecasting. They were primarily located in the north Atlantic and north Pacific oceans, reportin ...

s. He became the principal BBC weather forecaster in 1963, and his low-key presentation style made him a national institution. One of the highlights of his career came in 1969 during the BBC coverage of the

Apollo 12 Apollo 12 (November 14–24, 1969) was the sixth crewed flight in the United States Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon. It was launched on November 14, 1969, by NASA from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Commander Pete Conra ...

mission, when he predicted that the spacecraft could face some turbulence on take-off and might be struck by lightning. Within half an hour, lightning struck the spacecraft. Foord left the BBC in 1973, by which time his celebrity had led to the distinction of being a guest on Roy Plomley's '' Desert Island Discs''. He became principal forecaster for the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

Strike Command. In 1980, he became the subject of a "Bring Back Bert Foord" campaign started by presenter

Terry Wogan Sir Michael Terence Wogan (; 3 August 1938 – 31 January 2016) was an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in the UK for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in December 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekd ...

, who complained the British weather had become worse since Foord stopped presenting the forecasts. Foord's off-screen persona was quite different from his media image, being relaxed, jovial and outgoing (he ran the London Marathon in 1987). He retired from the Met Office in 1990, and died 11 years later.

Personal life

He lived in

Loosley Row Loosley Row is a hamlet in the civil parish of Lacey Green, Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills to the east of the main town of Princes Risborough. In the 2011 Census, the population was recorded in the Lacey Green Par ...

, in the former

Wycombe District Wycombe District was a local government district in Buckinghamshire in south-central England. Its council was based in the town of High Wycombe. The district was abolished on 31 March 2020 and its area is now administered by the unitary Buckin ...

.''Buckinghamshire Examiner'' Friday 14 January 1994, page 10

References

External links

BBC profile of Bert Foord
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foord, Bert 1930 births 2001 deaths BBC weather forecasters English meteorologists People from Appleby-in-Westmorland People from Wycombe District