William David Forbes, buried in Nigeria

[DoubleD]

Dear Forum Pals,

 

This really is a long shot, but...you never know do you!

 

I have been helping the pupils at Perth Academy with their research on the names on the school memorial, and my very first post on the Forum was over three years ago, in the section on Sub-Saharan Africa. I was looking for information on William David Forbes, and I have attached a PDF which contains the information I have been supplied with.

 

I can find no reference to any service records for William, but as well as being named on the Perth Academy memorial, he is also named on the St John's East Parish Church War Memorial, and the Golden Book for Perth and Perthshire. This would suggest that at least three groups of people decided that his death was due to his war service, and that his name should be commemorated.

 

I  also managed to find a family headstone in Perth, and I have attached a photograph of the section which says that he is interred in Udi, in Enugu State.

 

I have no idea if there is anyone out there who can look for a headstone and take a photo, or suggest a contact in Nigeria? Perhaps this might have some information, which would give a clue to his service in Nigeria.

 

Many thanks,

Dave

59c9180c2e289_WDForbes.pdf

 

 

 

[Eastindia]

As a railway engineer he may have been involved in the mobilisation of troops for the attacks on Togo and Cameroon, and in the possible use of tracks in Cameroon. The archives of Nigeria Railways should be available at Kew.  Many railway engineers were actively involved in supporting the army in their attacks and  may well have been listed on memorials as having died in war service though not in CWGC records which relate only to those who served in the armed forces. 

 

[John_Hartley]

Dave

 

The difficulty I see here, with regard to commemoration,  is the lack of evidence that he was serving. Whilst the pdf you link to mentions, at the top, that he was a private in the Nigerian Regiment, the body of the document suggests he was a civilian employee of the Railway Company (and, as such, I dont think would be entitled to commemoration). Is there any evidence to suggest he was with the Regiment at time of death?

 

May I suggest you ask the moderators to move the thread to the "possible non-commemorations" sub-forum, so we can get cracking on trying to find some way forward.

 

John

[DoubleD]

Dear East India and John,

 

Thanks very much for your replies.

 

As far as non-commemoration goes, I did contact Terry Dunham last year, with the information I have, and he told me that there was nothing to suggest that he would qualify for commemoration.

 

As for evidence that he served with the Nigerian Regiment, I must have seen it somewhere, but I'm not sure where! Not very thorough of me I know, but I suppose you learn from your mistakes, and I now record and save all sources. I do know that there is a copy of the Golden Book in the AK Bell Library in Perth. I am hoping that is where I saw it, and I will visit the library in the near future and have another look.

 

I can also enlist the help of a very knowledgeable local and family history "guru" at the library and see if we can find anything about the Nigerian Railways at the National Archives.

 

Many thanks for your help.

 

Dave

 

 

[MaureenE]

My knowledge is more about India. However, in colonial African conditions, I would be most surprised if any European would be a private in the Nigeria  Regiment, more so a person employed as an engineer who would be a person of authority in his civilian job, who you would expect to be an officer.  I suspect this part of your history is not correct. 

 

Note, it is the Nigeria Regiment, not Nigerian Regiment.

 

If the situation is anything like India, it would be very likely that his burial site in Nigeria no longer exists.

 

Cheers

Maureen

  

 

 

[DoubleD]

Hi Maureen,

 

Thank you for your advice.

 

I will see what I can find at the library, but I think it will be best to follow your advice and stick to the facts I have. I will remove any reference to the Nigeria Regiment, and just say that he died of pneumonia whilst employed as a railway engineer.

 

Cheers,

Dave

[Guest]

    The 2016 Routledge book has him as an artisan worker on the railways- I may try to see the book in detail at BL or chase the Blue Book references it has.

 

        Alas, Forbes does not figure in the English language newspapers of the time in Nigeria-I have had a look at BL's  online African digitised newspapers and he is not there.

Nigeria is a pain in the little toe (and elsewhere) for tracing casualties. I have one for 1917-remembered by CWGC at a church in Lagos  but no trace of him, his ship, the rest of the crew or anything,anywhere. Similarly, there are several casualties for Nigeria whose date of death is given as between 4th August 1914 to 31st August 1921-so accurate information is a joke. Maureene located one of them as dangerously wounded in East Africa but no firm knowledge of his date of death.

      Udi is in the middle of nowhere as far as activity for the Great War is concerned (Sure it's a lovely place if it your home town,dear reader!). Cannot find a listing with him as serving in any capacity-though railway workers in the various parts of the Empire were usually enrolled in some sort of railway guard regiments-there were several in South Africa during the Boer War.

   

 

      

[MaureenE]

If he was a trained engineer, there are some sources set out on the FIBIS Fibiwiki page Public Works Department ,which is about India  but could also apply to Africa

https://wiki.fibis.org/w/Public_Works_Department

In particular the publication Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland is held by the British Library. Published by ICE Publishing. Volume 3: 1890–1920

 

Cheers

Maureen

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Maureene said:

If he was a trained engineer, there are some sources set out on the FIBIS Fibiwiki page Public Works Department ,which is about India  but could also apply to Africa

https://wiki.fibis.org/w/Public_Works_Department

In particular the publication Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland is held by the British Library. Published by ICE Publishing. Volume 3: 1890–1920

 

Cheers

Maureen

 

   But there are good lists of engineers also on "Ancestry"