Dick Milford

Theodore Richard "Dick" Milford (10 June 1895 – 19 January 1987) was an English clergyman, educator and philanthropist, who was involved in the founding of Oxfam.

He was born at Yockleton Hall, Shropshire on 10 June 1895. He was eldest of the three children (all boys) of Robert Theodore Milford, who was headmaster of the local preparatory school, and Elspeth Barter, the granddaughter of George Moberly, Bishop of Salisbury. He attended Clifton College, where curriculum included instruction in music as well as the customary classical education.

When the First World War broke out, he volunteered for the army and was posted to the 19th Royal Fusiliers and then commissioned in the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. He fought in Mesopotamia and had two periods of leave in India. In 1918 he was sent to Cairo to train for the Royal Flying Corps, but in 1919 he was invalided and sent home.

In the same year, he went up to Magdalen College, Oxford, to study literae humaniores. He graduated with a first-class degree in 1921. He had been involved with the Student Christian Movement (SCM) at Oxford, a connection which took him back to India to teach first at Alwaye College, Travancore (1921–23) and then St. John's College, Agra (1923–24). He then returned to England to serve as local SCM secretary in Liverpool between 1924 and 1926.