Recent News

• BEM awarded to ex-pilot from Dartmouth

  June 28 2013

  AN ex-RAF pilot from Dartmouth has been honoured for dedicating his life to helping thousands of people overcome reading and writing difficulties.
  Trevor Swan Ford has been awarded a British Empire Medal in this year’s Queen’s birthday honours list.
  The 92-year-old, who is currently in hospital recovering from a stroke, received the award for his services to special needs education.
  Mr Swan Ford has spent nearly 50 years helping people struggling with dyslexia.
  While he was in the RAF, he started teaching Canadian pilots how to read and write. His interest in dyslexia continued at London University where he studied phonetics and linguistics.
  In the 1970s, he started working at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, alongside the late Dr Bevé Hornsby, a clinical psychologist, teacher and speech therapist.
  He eventually took over the word-blind clinic, where he taught hundreds of thousands to overcome dyslexia.
  Forty years ago, Mr Swan Ford moved to Dartmouth, where he continued his work – launching the South Devon Dyslexia Association, which still runs operates today from the Courtney Centre in Newton Abbot, with the help of his daughter Jude, who has been training with him for the past 15 years.
  He has been an honorary member of the British Dyslexia Association and a few years ago was named as South Devon Education Worker of the Year.