Dates:
War Service:
Second Lieutenant JOHN FORSTER of the 2nd battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps was killed in action on 14 September 1914, aged 21. He was commissioned in September 1913. By mid-September 1914 the retreat from Mons was over and the French and the BEF had gone back on to the offensive. At 3am on 14 September the 2/KRRC advanced in thick mist and driving rain to attack the ridge above the River Aisne known as the Chemin des Dames. They reached the crest but could go no further, pinned down by fire from the Germans occupying the sugar factory at the crossroads above Troyon.
He is remembered on the La Ferte-sous-Jouarre Memorial. The memorial located near the River Marne commemorates nearly 4,000 officers and men of the British Expeditionary Force who died in August, September and the early part of October 1914 and who have no known grave.
Location of Memorial:
Following the death of his brother Alfred in 1919 their parents commissioned a memorial to both brothers in St Katharine’s church, Exbury, near the family home at Lepe, Hampshire and there is another in the church of St John the Baptist, Southend. In 1919 Forster Memorial Park in Whitefoot Lane was given to the people of the Borough of Lewisham in their memory. His death was reported in The Times of 19 September 1914.
Details:
He was born on 13 May 1893, the son of Mr. H.W. Forster, M.P. and the Hon. Mrs Forster, of 41 Hans Place, London. The Forster's were the owners of a large estate in the Bromley Road/Whitefoot Lane area. He was educated at Eton. His brother Alfred died in 1919 of wounds sustained in October 1918 while serving with the Royal Scots Greys.
Source:
Contributed By: Andy Pepper
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