FORREST, George Richard
| Service Number: | 284 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 3rd Queensland Mounted Infantry |
| Born: | Ipswich, Queensland, Australia, 10 June 1879 |
| Home Town: | Mount Morgan, Rockhampton, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Not yet discovered |
| Died: | Palmerston North, Wellington, New Zealand , 7 July 1932, aged 53 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Kelvin Grove Cemetery, Palmerston North, N.Z. |
| Memorials: |
Boer War Service
| 1 Oct 1899: | Involvement Private, 284, 3rd Queensland Mounted Infantry | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Nov 1899: | Embarked Australian and Colonial Military Forces - Boer War Contingents, Private, 284, 3rd Queensland Mounted Infantry, ex Brisbane QLD per Cornwall | |
| 22 Jul 1900: | Wounded Australian and Colonial Military Forces - Boer War Contingents, Private, 284, 3rd Queensland Mounted Infantry, Battle of Koster River |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Chris Buckley
George was the second of seven children of Benjamin Collingwood Forrest (born 1853 at Patricks Plains in NSW) and Elizabeth Jane Booth (born 1856 at Warnambool in Victoria). Benjamin and Elizabeth married at Patricks Plains in NSW in 1875 and lived briefly in Murrundi, NSW before moving to Ipswich, QLD in 1878. Benjamin was a Grazier and Publican at Fernlea in Springshore QLD in 1894 when Elizabeth died. He remarried in Mount Margan, QLD in 1895 to Elizabeth Eckersley (born 1874 in Lancashire, England) and had they had two sons, moving to Sydney, NSW in 1906.
George served with the 3rd QLD Mounted Infantry (1899 - 1901) as a Private (Service No: 284) and was wounded at the Battle of Koster River. Lieutenant Brand wrote ' Dead carried in, wounded helped in, horses lying about in all directions. They killed all the horses but four or five and several stampeded, never to be seen again' (Letter published in The Bundaberg and Burnett Adverstiser on 19 September 1900).
George returned to Sydney, NSW (where his father and step mother were living) and worked as an Engineer before moving to New Zealand in 1905. He married Caroline Annie Dodson (born 1879 in Shropshire, England) in 1906 in Auckland, NZ. George and Caroline settled in Auckland, also living in Gisborne and Wellington until George's death in 1932. Caroline died in 1962.
George's younger brother, Percy Berwick Forrest served in WWI with the NZ Expeditionary Force as a Private (Service No: 36962).
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