John Standish Fforde (16 November 1921 – 10 April 2000) was a British economist who was active in the Bank of England between 1957 and 1984.

Fforde was born at Broadstone, Dorset, fourth of five children of farmer and civil engineer Francis Creswell Fforde (1873-1949), of Lurgan, County Armagh, Ireland, and his first wife, Agnes Cecily.

Volunteering for war service in 1940, he joined the RAF and from 1941 - 1943 was based in Canada as a flying instructor for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and in 1943 converted on to heavy bombers to fly the Consolidated B-24 Liberator and was posted to No.

358 Squadron RAF for the South East Asia Command based out of Jessore.

Returning to Oxford post war he took first-class honours in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1949, subsequently taking the promotion to MA having spent the requisite time as a member of the university.