Engineer Rear-Admiral Edward Owen Hefford OBE (1871 – 7 August 1955) was a Royal Navy officer.
Hefford grew up in Dewsbury and Huddersfield.[1] He was educated at Batley Grammar School and then went to the Royal Naval Engineering College at Keyham, Plymouth, in 1886.[1] Becoming a probationary assistant engineer after his training, he was confirmed in the rank of assistant engineer on 12 October 1892.[2] He was promoted to engineer on 7 August 1896,[3] later becoming an engineer lieutenant when engineering officer ranks were standardised with those of line officers. He was promoted to engineer commander on 1 June 1908,[4] appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1919 New Year Honours for his service in the First World War,[5] and promoted to engineer captain on 13 December 1919.[6] From 1921 to 1923 he was chief engineer of the Royal Navy base[7] and president of the Allied Dockyard Commission in Constantinople and from 1924 to 1925 he was engineer overseer for the Royal Navy's London District. He was promoted to engineer rear-admiral on 15 July 1925 and retired the following day.[8]
Hefford was also a keen cyclist and a prominent member of the Cyclists' Touring Club. He was chairman of the council in 1947 and a vice-president in 1953. He married Mary Catherine Taylor in 1902; they had two daughters. Mary died in March 1955 and Hefford himself died in a nursing home in Paignton, Devon, on 7 August 1955.[1]