As the district officer of Kwun Tong, Gilford oversaw one of the 18 administrative districts of Hong Kong and endeavored to make it a better society. He initiated districtwide programs to enhance the social mobility of underprivileged youth. He also launched an integrated sociomedical model for health risk assessment and management to improve the wellbeing of senior citizens in the district, which had the second-highest poverty rate and third-highest percentage of elderly population in 2016. In his 19 years of public service, Gilford served as the spokesman for Hong Kong’s chief secretary for administration, created a new funding mechanism to strengthen the capacity of the performing arts sector, and formulated an unprecedented multipronged strategy for rejuvenating dilapidated urban areas.