Until today I had made little progress gathering more detail about my mother’s step-father. This post is a pointer to the fuller story elsewhere on this site…
Robert Andrew Dermod Forrest was born on 21 Feb 1893. In the family he was known as Robin.
So far I have found very little information about him via Ancestry.com. I have had no idea who his parents were or even where he was born. The standard searches only reveal his death in Cornwall and marriage to Lúcia towards the end of his life.
Family tradition is that he had a first wife Dorothy or Doy who had apparently migrated to Australia and lived out her days in Melbourne.
The Gwulo site has a page about him which I should contribute info to, and pointed me to fruitful sources of information about his career via the HK Government Records Online site.
This page mentions a brief biographical note about Forrest included in an article about Hong Kong Cadets, 1862-1941, published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch Volume 10 (1970) by H. J. Lethbridge and available online via the link from HKU.
Robert Andrew Dermod Forrest (born 1893). Educated at Aberdeen University. Hong Kong Civil Service 1919; Inspector of vernacular Schools; Immigration Officer 1940. Lecturer in Tibeto-Burman Linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University.
This prompted me to check what information his alma mater the University of Aberdeen might have about him.
Conveniently they have published a relatively detailed roll of graduates since 1860. It is now digitised and freely available. I found RAD Forrest in the 974pp document.
FORREST, Robert Andrew Dermod *M.A. 1914
S. of Robert C. F., engineer ; b. Leytonstone, London, 21 Feb. 1893 ; Rosebank, Longside, Aberdeenshire. Appointed to Hongkong Cadet Service, 1919: assistant treasurer and deputy estate duty commissioner, 1931. R. of S. p. 195.
M. Kinross, 27 June 1916, Georgina, d. of Thomas Robertson [M.A. 1862, q.v.], schoolmaster, Lower Cabrach, Banffshire.
Suddenly I have the name of his father and where he was born! And a wee bit more!
… for more continue reading here…