THOMAS FORBES M.B.E., T.D., M.A., B.A. RHS 1941-67

A few years ago, a member of staff went away for two years on an exchange visit to some far-flung part of the world. He returned to this school, and a few weeks later met in the staff-room Tom Forbes, of whom he enquired how things had been going. In some surprise, Tom looked at him over his glasses: "Have you been off?" The story may be exaggerated.

Tom Forbes has been on the staff of this school for 27 years, taking over the Modern Languages department when Edgar Burgoyne retired. At that time, the male members of department took up residence along the Terrace, and after the first flurry of unaccustomed movement, the tranquillity of repose soon settled over all. In the centre, an enigmatic figure of Budhist calm, Tom Forbes from Room 40 directed countless feet along well-worn paths towards academic achievement.

A peaceful routine seemed established. Russian was taught next to the American Consulate!-until the time came when the demands of a modern, technological age could no longer be denied and-ugh-the first of the Machines arrived, a tape-recorder, with its attendant coils of wriggling tape, twisting, tangling and emerging like slippery spaghetti from Tom's grasp. Then in quick succession followed projectors and screens, blown fuses, films, and all the paraphenalia of audio-visual equipment, until finally with the threat of a whole Language Laboratory in the Palace of Barnton, Colonel Forbes decided on a strategic withdrawal.

He can look back on a long and honourable association with the school. For 18 years he was in command of the C.C.F.-and they were not easy years, during and immediately after the war. The award of an M.B.E. was no more than adequate recognition for all that he did as Commanding Officer of the Cadet Corps which included Army, Navy and Air Force sections. The school trips abroad, first with Edgar Burgoyne and then as organiser on his own; the editorship of the school magazine; the duties of Form master-all these he accepted as part of a day's work.

Names might elude him, but his memory is of encyclopaedic proportions of grammar form, historical derivation and academic reference-let it not be forgotten that Tom at one time taught Classics in this school. He was constantly surprised by the ignorance of our assistants from France concerning their own language. In a shifting world of changing values, Tom has been one constant and unchanging factor. To the pupils he must have seemed like the Rock of Ages, and like the Rock, his own faith and personal integrity have a very sure and firm foundation. Just as men of character are disappearing from the public scene, so too are the "characters" fast disappearing from the teaching profession. Tom was one of these-a "character" unique and irreplaceable.

Thomas Forbes, M.B.E., T.D., M.A., B.A.

From Schola Regia July 1967.

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