Universities at War

Ferdinand was born in Norfolk Island, Australia, where his father was a Church of England chaplain.

He was educated in England for most of his life, and went on to study at Guy's Hospital, London, from where he graduated in 1871. He later attended Durham University to study Medicine, graduating in 1885 (although it is possible he had already moved to New Zealand at this point, returning to the UK perhaps only for this qualification).

Ferdinand married Eliza Annie Jordison in 1872, and they had one son and two daughters. He later married Margaret Forbes Thomson in 1906.

Ferdinand served in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, and was responsible for the organisation to control venereal disease in New Zealand troops in Cairo from 1914 to 1915.

Ferdinand died of disease in Dunedin in 1915.