Horace A. (Horace Alfred) Ford

Born in 1822, Horace Alfred Ford is chiefly known as the author of The Theory and Practice of Archery. The book became his lasting claim to fame and helped fix his reputation as both a leading archer and a clear writer on the sport.

Ford is widely associated with Victorian target archery, where he was celebrated for exceptional skill and influence. Because the easily available sources for him are fairly limited, many biographical details are less commonly documented online than his achievements in archery and his book.

He died in 1880. Today, he is remembered less as a literary figure in the broad sense than as a specialist author whose name still matters to readers interested in archery history, technique, and 19th-century sporting culture.