CAPT. WALTER JOHNSON FORSTER 3RD BATTN. EAST LANCASHIRE REGT. (S.R.)., ATTD. 8TH BATTN. KILLED IN ACTION AT MONCHY-LE-PREUX, NEAR ARRAS, ON THE NIGHT OF MAY 30TH, 1917. AGED 23. At the School 1908—12 (Day Boy). Capt. Walter Johnson Forster was the only child of Mr. John Walter Forster, Accountant to the Borough of Tunbridge Wells, and Mrs. J. W. Forster, of 18, Mountfield Gardens, Tunbridge Wells. Entering the School in September, 1908, from the Skinners' School, Tunbridge Wells, he left from the Upper Fifth in July, 1912. From his boyhood he was an enthusiast with regard to military matters, and had strong views as to the duty of the citizen to make himself efficient to serve his country should occasion arise. He had been in the Cadet Corps at the Skinners' School; in the O.T.C here he was a Corporal for his last year, and going up to Trinity College, Oxford, he joined the University O.T.C. and gained Certificate " B." One of the senior officers of the Oxford O.T.C. testifies to his keen interest in military studies and to the ability with which he made panoramic military sketches. He made constant use of pen and pencil sketches at all times, and not least in his letters from the Front, his work showing a keen sense of humour and an indomitable cheerfulness. He had been to camp six times, and the outbreak of war found him at Great Yarmouth in the camp of the Trinity College Mission, Stratford, E., in which he took a great and practical interest. Indeed, generosity and unselfishness were specially characteristic of him and were displayed in many ways both before and during the War. A letter from an officer friend concludes with, " Don't do too much for every one and neglect your own health entirely." Moreover, in work at School, at College, and in the Army he showed great industry and conscientiousness in all that he undertook. At Oxford he was reading law for the Final Honours School, and he had been admitted a student at the Inner Temple. On the outbreak of war he at once threw up his Oxford career and was one of the lirst Oxford men to volunteer for active service, being gazetted on August 15th, 1914, to the Special Reserve of the East Lancashire Regt. He was accorded his B.A. degree " in absence " in March, 1917, together with other Oxford men who had been thus debarred from taking their degree in the ordinary course. It is stated that he was the first Tunbridge Wells man to obtain a commission after the outbreak of war. In January, 1915, he went out to the 1st. Battn. of the East Lancashires in France, and on March 30th, 1915, was severely wounded in several places at Le Gheir, Flanders, losing the two first fingers and the thumb of his right hand, and sustaining several minor permanent injuries. He was then for some time in England engaged in home training. His injuries were such that he could probably have obtained his discharge, and many tempting offers of civil employment were made to him by those who knew his worth, but he preferred to go out again, if considered fit to do so. He had been promoted Lieutenant on May 1st, 1915, and received his Captaincy on May 5th, 1916, and after fifteen months of useful and arduous work at home he went to the Front again in December, 1916, being posted to the 8th Battn. He had taken part in much stern fighting in 1917, especially at Festubert and Loos, and was instantaneously killed in action on the night of May 30th, 1917, when the Battalion captured Hook Trench, at Infantry Hill, near Monchy-le-Preux, but had to retire owing to the failure of the attack on their flanks. From the account given by the officer who was second in command of his Company it would appear that Captain Forster was killed or mortally wounded, probably by a bomb, whilst most gallantly trying with bombs to check the enemy, who were bombing their way up the trench from the flank in force, and was unavoidably left dead or dying, in German hands, when the survivors of the Company were compelled to retire. His CO. wrote :— " We had been ordered to carry out a night attack and Captain Forster reached the German trenches with his men. The attack had been only partially successful, and his position was neither clear nor comfortable. and he organised a defence and then went along to find the troops on his flank. A bullet struck him and he fell dead. . . . It will, doubtless, be a source of pride to you to know that twice within ten days of his death he was congratulated by the Divisional General on his patrol work in a very difficult portion of the line." A Brigadier-General, formerly an officer of the Regiment, wrote:— " He loved the Regiment to which he was such a credit. His record is a very fine one, both before he joined the army and after, and it is sad beyond measure that a life so full, not only of promise, but of performance, should have been cut short. "He was a very gallant soldier and he died nobly. He was not only a fighting leader of men, but ako one who was qualified to lead by his powers of judgment as well as by his courage." The following is from the letter of an officer who had been detailed for service in India in March, 1917 :— " I did not know him for long, as time normally goes, but during Jan.-March of this year I was fortumate enough to work under him under conditions which showed the fine unselfishness of his character. " It is that unselfishness, I think, which above all stamped every action, and endeared him with Tommy as much as officer. Nothing was ever asked of another, which he was not ready and willing first to attempt himself. As his Company Second-in-Command, I saw during those two months, perhaps more than anybody else, how splendid was his desire to keep every one cheery and lighten the load which trench life puts on every one's shoulders. . . . It is the curse of war that the best and most unselfish often go under first, but I am very sure that your boy would have asked no finer end, and that I am only one of very many who will find encouragement in the example he has left behind."