Lieutenant Philip Maurice Forsyth-Forrest
Philip Maurice Forsyth-Forrest was born in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, in 1896, son of Thomas Forsyth-Forrest and his wife Marion, of The Querns, Tetbury Road.
He was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant on 28 July 1916 and posted to the North Irish Horse at Antrim. A fellow officer at Antrim, Lancelot Wise, mentioned him in a letter to his mother on 21 October 1916:
There are some quite good fellows here. One is a cousin of Hamilton’s, Harry’s pal in K.E.H. Another fellow who is an awfully good fellow called Forrest. I don’t know if you remember them. They are Cheltenham people. His two sisters were very good dancers & very pretty. They are both married now. One to a Cirencester fellow in this regiment called Smart.
On 22 April 1917 he joined the 2nd North Irish Horse Regiment at Boeschepe in Belgium. The regimental diary of 5 July notes that:
2/Lt Forsyth-Forest and Lt Oeken with 16 OR & 1 Hotchkiss Gun went up to the line for trench work attached 124 Brgde.
In September 1917 his regiment was dismounted and its officers and men absorbed into the 9th Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers. Forsyth-Forrest was posted to the battalion on 4 October but fell ill soon after and on 24 November was evacuated to hospital in England.
He was promoted to lieutenant on 28 January 1918 and two months later transferred to the Reserve of the 1st (Royal) Dragoons.
Forsyth-Forrest relinquished his commission on 1 April 1920.
The image above, dated 1914, was kindly provided by Anita Forsyth-Forrest.