Reginald FORREST

'Clitheroe Times’ (7 October 1916)

(Kindly supplied by Shirley Penman of Clitheroe and Dorothy Falshaw of Gisburn)

A BRAVE SON

LIEUTENANT FORREST KILLED AT HIS POST

It is with deep regret that we record the death of Lieutenant Reginald Forrest, son of Mr. and Mrs. T. Forrest of Major House, Clitheroe. The sad news was received on Wednesday afternoon by telegram, the secretary at the War Office wiring:

Regret to inform you that Lieut. R. Forrest, 4th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, was killed in action on September 28th. The Army Council send their sympathy.

In addition a letter was received from Lieutenant-Colonel R. Hindle, who says: “I am extremely grieved to have to tell you of the death of your son who was killed in action on September 27th, whilst the Battalion was attacking the German trenches in the great offensive. He was acting as Intelligence Officer and doing his work exceedingly well, showing very great courage and ability. At the time of his death he was observing the progress of the advance from a point of vantage. He was hit by a shell and killed instantaneously. I know that I am able to offer very little consolation at this time, but I should like you to know that he never suffered and felt nothing whatever…. I will arrange for someone when on leave to tell you where he fell and where he is buried…. Will you please accept my sincere sympathy in the loss of a brave son.”

Lieutenant Forrest joined the army along with some thirty of his friends during the first month of war, the contingent, which joined the 1st 5th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, being styled “The Cuffs and Collars.” Clitheroe people know very well the subsequent movements of that happy band, of how they were rushed through training, and despatched to France, there to endure the trials if siege warfare in trenches through winter, summer and winter again. They know too of the many marvellous escapes the company had and of the praise given the Clitheroe men for their soldierly bearing under grave difficulties. Corporal Forrest as he then was, was with the company through all, one of the “leading lights” of as bright a body of men as ever went to France. He, with his pals, worked hard, and when official recognition of their proficiency came alone [sic] in the shape of commissions, he was one of the proud recipients. His forte in military matters lay in the region of bombs, and we remember that when on furlough he gave the Adult School a fine lecture on that branch of attacking material. When gazetted to the 4th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment–he previously in the 5th–he was made bombing officer whilst at Blackpool, with the training battalion, but was speedily sent out to France, there to perform the exacting duties of an officer on service. He had been out three months, when he was killed, and nobody who knew him will be surprised to learn he died at his post in an exposed position.

Lieutenant Forrest, who was twenty-six years of age, was exceedingly well known throughout the Clitheroe district. He was educated at Clitheroe Grammar School and later took the young man’s interest in sport, and played football with Clitheroe Amateurs for several seasons.

Lieutenant Forrest was secretary to, and life and soul of the Clitheroe Junior Unionists. He was keenly interested in politics and was offered by Mr. Arbuthnot and accepted a post as assistant organiser to Mr. Tom Smith. In time he would probably have left the London City and Midland Bank to devote his whole attention to the Unionist cause.

His death is a great loss, greatest of course to the Forrest family. We extend to them sincere sympathy in their sorrow.

England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966

1922

FORREST Thomas of Major House Church-street Clitheroe Lancashire died 5 January 1922 Probate London 13 June to Thomas Henry Nowell Forrest dental surgeon Herbert Forrest bank cashier and Edward Forrest dental surgeon. Effects £3801 3s. 10d.

100 Years On Guard

A Grenadier Guard in full battle dress and mourning pose has stood in a leafy and flower-filled Memorial Garden, keeping guard over the town of Clitheroe, for almost a century. Unveiled on 18th August 1923 by the Mayor of Clitheroe, Alderman John Thomas Whipp, the sculpture was the work of Frederick Louis Roslyn R.B.S. of London, who attended the unveiling. Two identical statues stand at Slaidburn and Denholme and are amongst the many memorials which Roslyn created in the British Isles plus one as far afield as Jamaica. The Scots granite plinth was designed by Mr. A. E. Blezard, Clitheroe Town Council’s surveyor, who also oversaw the construction of the cenotaph and the memorial garden. The finance for the cenotaph at Clitheroe Castle was sourced from part of the public donations which the citizens of Clitheroe had raised for the purchase of the castle, and the six point four hectare grounds surrounding it, from the Duke of Buccleuch as a war memorial for the princely sum of £9,500. His Lordship had asked for more but reduced the sum when told that the purchase was for a war memorial. More cash was accrued after this time to pay for making the grounds into a public park.

The money was collected in many ways – millworkers had one penny (1/2 p) stopped from their wages each week; school children sold bunches of wildflowers for a penny; mill owners provided multiples of tens of pounds at different times and there were fayres, bazaars, dances and auctions held to swell the funds. On the momentous day, almost 1,000 servicemen, – some horribly wounded or disfigured – lined the street through the town from the mayor’s parlour in Church Street to the entrance to the castle at the aptly named Castle Gate. The mayoral party, made up of the Mayor and Mayoress, Aldermen, Corporation councillors, magistrates, Town Clerk, Sergeant of the Mace and halberdiers, and members of the War Memorial Committee made their slow and dignified way between these men who grieved for their lost companions until they reached the locked gates of the castle grounds.

The little market town’s losses had been great – a goodly portion of the next generation gone for ever. Hardly a family or a street had been spared, with drawn curtains at many of the cottages in the little back-to-back houses in the Salford area, including the homes of the three Fielding brothers and the three McHales, – all of Harrop Street. Mrs. Annabella Park of High Street, Low Moor lost three of her sons, – one of whom enlisted from Canada to fight for the “mother-country”, one whilst a prisoner of war and one, so inhumanely treated whilst a prisoner of war, that he came home terminally ill and took his own life. Less than a hundred yards away, the aging Alston parents were left with only one son and a daughter from their family of five. The Boothman family of Pimlico, lost two sons, Frank and Bertram, both of whom worked in the offices of the local authority; the two Durham brothers, Joseph and Thomas from Brownlow Street, both unskilled workers. Many were the names and tragic stories of these “lost boys”; the very fabric of the township’s life was changed by these blows – the churches and Sunday schools, the football teams, cricket teams, industries and businesses. The lives of the parents, wives and children of all these brave men and boys had been changed forever; and so the mood was sombre as they gathered on this day of remembrance.

Here at the gates were waiting the Subscribers’ Committee, who had handled the weekly savings and the purchase of the castle, headed by Alderman Tom Garnett J.P. Whilst handing to the mayor the deeds to the castle and a key with which to open the gates, he voiced the hope that “the memory of the great dead would remain treasured and cherished in their hometown until time shall be lost in eternity.”

In the name of all Clitheronians, Mayor Whipp accepted these tokens of custody and said that “the Castle would stand as a perpetual reminder of the great deliverance wrought for our land by those who fought in the Great War. The Corporation would carefully guard the Castle and grounds as a sacred trust and would hand it on as a precious heritage to future generations.”

So began the council stewardship of the splendid and unique war memorial which the castle had become. Once more the mayoral party, followed by the servicemen and onlookers, made their slow, reverential way up the castle drive to the Garden of Remembrance where-in the Memorial, covered by the Union Jack, stood. Relatives of the fallen had been granted two tickets per family as entrance to this garden; other onlookers had to squeeze into every other available nook and cranny. A solemn unveiling by Mayor Whipp was followed by the Last Post, a two-minute silence and Reveille but then, instead of laying the first, Clitheroe citizens wreath himself, the mayor handed it to Mr. Thomas Snape and said, “Please, you have more right to lay this wreath than I.” Mr. Snape walked forward and took the beautiful arch of white lilies grown in the castle greenhouses which had the words “In Remembrance” picked out in purple flowers and laid it at the foot of the memorial. He, who had lost four sons and a son-in-law in the vicious five-year fight for peace, did indeed deserve this honour. The service continued with prayers, choir anthems, readings and hymns; culminating with the hymn “Abide with Me” and the National Anthem. Everyone was now allowed to place their own tributes at the foot of the Guard on his lofty, granite plinth. By the evening of that day over 400 floral tributes formed a beautiful token of love, gratitude and remembrance. Wreaths, anchors, crosses and cushions – had been laid in memory of the 334 men of the town who went away singing never to return.

Researched by Shirley Penman. August, 2023