Admiral Sir John Durnford, GCB, DSO (6 February 1849 – 13 June 1914) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Cape of Good Hope Station.

Educated at Eton College and the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, Durnford joined the Royal Navy in 1862 and served in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of 1885 to 1886 for which he was mentioned in dispatches and awarded the DSO.

[1] Promoted to captain in 1888, he commanded the torpedo school HMS Vernon from 1895 to 1899.

[2] Durnford became Junior Naval Lord in February 1901 and was promoted to rear-admiral on 1 January 1902.

[4] In 1881 he married Mary Louisa Eleanor Kirwan; they had one son and three daughters.