John Harford Harland (1923-2018) was born in the great shipbuilding city of Belfast in Northern Ireland. He was educated at Methodist College and Queen's University, Belfast, entering Medical School in 1940. In 1942, he interrupted medical studies to join the Royal Navy as a "Hostilities only" volunteer, serving aboard HMS Pangbourne, a WW1 vintage coal-burning fleet minesweeper. He underwent officer training at HMS King Alfred and was posted to the 123rd coastal force flotilla in Freetown, skippering motor launch HDML 1106 and B-class Fairmile ML 256. After the war he returned to the UK for demobilization and resumption of his medical studies.
After graduating he emigrated to Canada. Although the area of British Columbia where he lived is far from the sea, he never lost his childhood interest in the sea and ships, devoting most of his spare time to their study. He was a highly active member of the Society for Nautical Research and seamanship under sail has been a particular interest for over thirty years. Dr Harland was blessed with a prodigious facility for languages, having a mastery of most major European tongues and a working knowledge of many others. Therefore, he was able to read and compare virtually every manual and text book ever published on the subject in order to work out how ships were really handled, even down to the smallest detail of shipboard routine.