Fordham joined the Consular Service as a probationer vice-consul in 1930, and served at
San Francisco from 1930 to 1933;
Lima from 1933 to 1936;
Guatemala from 1936 to 1943, where he was promoted to second secretary; and
Los Angeles from 1943 to 1944. In 1944, he was promoted to first secretary while serving at
San Salvador before he was transferred to
St Louis the following year. In 1948, he was transferred to the Foreign Office, promoted to counsellor, and in the following year made head of the American department. He then served at
Warsaw from 1951 until 1952 when he was posted to
Stockholm. From 1954 to 1956, he was minister at
Buenos Aires. He then served as ambassador to Cuba from 1956 to 1960 during the
Cuban Revolution when, according to
The Times, "While other Ambassadors were resigning or being recalled in the months after
Fidel Castro's rise, Fordham on all accounts achieved a remarkable increase in British standing." He was then ambassador to Colombia from 1960 to 1964. After retiring from the service in 1964, he became a
JP in 1966, and served as
High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely from 1973 to 1974, and then HM Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire from 1975 to 1977. == Personal life and death ==