Charles Hay Forbes RN

[Roderick Hutchison]

Yes: He became Inspector of Lifeboats in Scotland after the War. Retired as rank of Captain

[Michelle Young]

Link to previous thread about this man.

 

[Matlock1418]

11 minutes ago, Michelle Young said:

Link to previous thread about this man.

Agh, duplication again.

Mods - Perhaps the threads could be merged please.

M

[Michelle Young]

Threads merged again. 

[Matlock1418]

Just now, Michelle Young said:

Threads merged again. 

M

[Roderick Hutchison]

Just found and regret health issues have just brought me back. Yes Forbes is buried in the cemetery in London

[Wexflyer]

On 01/04/2022 at 06:19, helpjpl said:

England & Wales Probate Calendar (ancestry):

JP

This is an all too typical example of the mis-attributions done by Ancestry. You simply can't trust their locations. The St. Andrews is from an original document (but not actual death place), but they then somehow decide it is the one in Canada....

[rolt968]

Interesting! I thought I really should know where Windmill Lodge was/is in St Andrews (Fife). I didn't.

It is  numbered 4 Windmill Street. For those who know St. Andrews for golf Windmill Street is the right turn off the  A91 opposite Grannie Clark's Wynd. For those (like me) who (used to) know the University, it puts Windmill Lodge somewhere behind John Burnet Hall (or the Atholl Hotel for those with even longer memories).

RM

[Roderick Hutchison]

Thank you. I have completed my search for all details and apart from a photograph of him for our Book of Remembrance I have the following:

Son of Captain J. A. Forbes. Born Berwick on Tweed, Northumberland, 23/09/1883. Married to Emily Fawcus Carrall at the British Consulate, Chefoo, China, on 19 October 1901.

Upon passing out of Britannia in December, 1888, he was appointed to the corvette Conquest on the China Station, where things went poorly for him. In May 1890, he was deprived of one months' seniority by Captain Henderson for "want of diligence and attention to his duties" and another months' time for [illeg] to the chaplain and naval instructor. Another report detailed the loss of a further four months' time, and words such as "recommend his removal from the service" and "consider his retention in the serice is not desirable" are sprinkled about. He was able to weather the storm somehow, and left the ship when she paid off on 11 May, 1892.^[1]

He was sent to join Howe of the Channel Squadron for six months, and then to Camperdown, additional, for nine.^[2]

Forbes was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in June, 1896. He was awarded the Swedish Order of the Crown in 1908. Recalled for the war, he was mentioned in despatches twice and awarded the C.B.E.(M) for valuable service as D.N.T.O. Salonika and promoted Captain (Retired)."

Forbes was placed on the Retired List at his own request on 15 July, 1909. He was granted a step in rank to Commander (retired) upon reaching the age of 40 on 23 September 1913. He became HM Inspector of Lifeboats in Scotland following discharge^.

During the Great War, he served as a Transport Officer at Portsmouth and Salonika. Forbes was granted the rank of Captain (retired) in recognition of war service with seniority of 11 November, 1918. He would die in late 1919 and is buried In St Mary’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green, London.

My best regards to you and all who have helped

Roderick

[seaJane]

Good morning Roderick,

An enquiry to the librarian of the Britannia Royal Naval College might find you a class photograph in which he features. I struck lucky when researching Lt Lionel Tudway RN some years ago.

seaJane

[Roderick Hutchison]

Many Thanks. Will try

[Moriaty]

I have  belatedly come to this topic. The youngest son of Charles Hay Forbes RN was my godfather, Fr James Forbes, who died in 1979.  Born in 1913 in Berwick on Tweed as Cyril Louis Forbes, the youngest son, of Captain Forbes and his wife. In his clerical life he was known as Fr James, but friends called him Louis.

In an obituary, possibly written by a fellow cleric, it reads "Louis Forbes was the third of brothers and last to die. One was killed in submarines with a DSO in the War; and the other had been a naval officer. They were all descendants of Captain James Forbes, RN, and his son Captain Charles Hay Forbes, CBE, RN. In the background was a Forbes baronetcy and a connection with Chinese merchant trade, both distinguishable in the face of the monk. His was a proud family with its many 'difficulties' that continued to be visited on the man and the monk down his two-thirds of a century of life; and only those who knew in any detail of the troubles brought to his door as to a patriarch, in the midst of his priestly solicitudes and his pastoral leadership, can ever know what a rock he was to family and friends alike. Suffice it to say that in 1919, when he was a child of six, his father died of the effects of Dardanelles shellshock."

"James came to Ampleforth from Ladycross, a south-coast preparatory school. His father, already dead, had been a captain in the Navy. His mother was left with three sons and little but her pension; but she had the skill of making sixpence do when most people would need a shilling. She was not a Catholic. The two elder boys went into the Navy. James went to Ampleforth.

"... in 1931 - after a tour to Rome with Dom Martin Rochford - he entered the novitiate that September, to the persistent anguish of his widowed mother. He went smoothly through vows and diaconate to the priesthood in July 1940. He had by then read History (Honours Second) at Oxford from St Benet's Hall, then under the monastic rigours of Dom Justin McCann's Mastership. He taught well, in double harness much of the time with Tom Charles-Edwards; and together they began achieving a stream of Oxbridge awards. But other duties later sapped his earlier close attention to teaching, notably his appointment as Steward (1947-50) and to run the church Appeal (1957-61). The new Gilbert Scott church, long planned and half begun, was completed and consecrated in 1961, in large measure due to Fr James' organisational efforts and the vision of his Appeal approach. In 1964 he became Master of the Hall until his death fifteen years later".

[rolt968]

On 02/04/2022 at 16:29, Tawhiri said:

There are two entries for his will on ScotlandsPeople. Viewing a will online on ScotlandsPeople costs 10 credits (GBP 2.50), so possibly 20 credits in total. If there is only one actual will, it will show as having already been paid for when you go to view the second entry. I suspect that there is only one will, but it has been indexed under two separate categories.

Forbes	Charles Hay	16/3/1920	C.B.E., Windmill Lodge, St. Andrews., Capt., R.N., d. 07/11/1919 in London, testate.		Cupar Sheriff Court	SC20/50/103
Forbes	Charles Hay	16/3/1920	C.B.E., Windmill Lodge, St. Andrews., Capt., R.N., d. 07/11/1919 in London, testate.		Cupar Sheriff Court Wills	SC20/56/20

Apologies! I am picking this thread up very late. I wonder if this a will and inventory which would be charged as two documents.