ErmaT39411378 at 14:08, 22 January 2024

2024-01-22T14:08:05Z

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{{Short description|British educator, journalist and historian}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Sir George William David Stark Forrest''' (1845–1926) was a British educator, journalist and historian, in India from 1872 to 1900.<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|id=33206|first=Katherine|last=Prior|title=Forrest, Sir George William David Stark}}</ref>

==Life==
He was the second son of [[George Forrest (VC)|George Forrest]] VC, born at [[Nasirabad, Ajmer]]. He matriculated at [[St John's College, Cambridge]] in 1866, graduating B.A. in 1870.<ref name="IBD">{{cite IBD1915|wstitle=Forrest, George William}}</ref><ref name="acad">{{acad|id=FRST866GW|name=Forrest, George William David Starck}}</ref> He entered the [[Inner Temple]] in 1872, but was not [[called to the bar]]. He began to write for periodicals including the ''[[Saturday Review (London newspaper)|Saturday Review]]''. As a journalist, he was known for work published in ''[[The Times]]'', particularly a scoop in 1880 with the [[Battle of Maiwand]].<ref name="acad"/>

Forrest was appointed to Bombay Educational Department, late in 1872. He was Census Commissioner at Bombay in 1882. He was seconded to work on the Bombay Records, 1884-8, becoming Professor of English History, [[Elphinstone College]], in 1887. He was Director, Bombay Records, in 1888, Assistant Secretary, Government of India, and Director, Government of India Records, 1894–1900.<ref name="IBD"/>

In bad health, Forrest returned to the United Kingdom in 1900.<ref name="ODNB"/> He went in 1904 to Iffley Turn House just outside Oxford, was knighted in 1913, and died there on 28 January 1926.<ref name="acad"/>

==Works==
Forrest published books:<ref name="IBD"/>

*''Selections from the Official Writings of Mountstuart Elphinstone'' (1884)<ref name="ODNB"/>
*''Selections from the State Papers in the Foreign Department'' (1890)<ref name="ODNB"/>
*''The Administration of the Marquis of Lansdowne as Viceroy and Governor'' (1894)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Forrest |first1=Sir George |title=The Administration of the Marquis of Lansdowne as Viceroy and Governor-general of India, 1888-1894 |date=1894 |publisher=Office of the Superintendent of Government Print. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R_cOAAAAQAAJ |language=en}}</ref>
*''Sepoy Generals'' (1901)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Forrest |first1=George W. |title=Sepoy Generals: Wellington to Roberts |date=2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-02853-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y7ZdzWPDFdwC |language=en}}</ref>
*''Cities of India Past and Present'' (1903)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Forrest |first1=Sir George William |title=Cities of India Past and Present |date=1903 |publisher=Constable |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3bc2AAAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref>
*''History of the Indian Mutiny'' (1904–1912, 3 vols.), a documentary history.<ref name="ODNB"/> [[John Laband]] wrote in 1976 of historiography of the Indian rebellion of 1857 in terms of "the voluminous literature of British historians such as [[John William Kaye|Kaye]], [[Thomas Rice Holmes|Holmes]] and G. W. Forrest."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Laband |first1=J. P. C. |title=The Nature of the Indian Mutiny: A Changing Concept |journal=Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory |date=1976 |issue=46 |page=32 |jstor=41801598 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41801598 |issn=0040-5817}}</ref> [[Rudrangshu Mukherjee]], writing in 2008, stated that "Much of what we write and say today about 1857 is possible because of the work of [Surendra Nath Sen, [[R. C. Majumdar|Ramesh Chundra Majumdar]] and [[Sashi Bhusan Chaudhuri|S B Chaudhuri]]] and of the great narratives produced in the second half of the 19th century and early 20th century by Charles Ball, [[John William Kaye|John Kaye]], G W Forrest and others."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mukherjee |first1=Rudrangshu |title=Two Responses to 1857 in the Centenary Year |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |date=2008 |volume=43 |issue=24 |pages=51–55 |jstor=40277566 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40277566 |issn=0012-9976}}</ref>
*''Selections from the Travels and Journals Preserved in the Bombay Secretariat'' (1906)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Forrest |first1=George William |title=Selections from the Travels and Journals Preserved in the Bombay Secretariat |date=1906 |publisher=Printed at the Government central Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a-g-AAAAYAAJ |language=en}}</ref>
*''Life of Field-Marshal Sir Neville Chamberlain, G.C.B., G.C.S.I.'' (1909),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Forrest |first1=George William |title=Life of Field-Marshal Sir Neville Chamberlain, G. C. B., G. C. S. I |date=1909 |publisher=Edinburgh and London, W. Blackwood and Sons |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeoffieldmarsh00forrrich}}</ref> on [[Neville Bowles Chamberlain]].
*''Selections from the State Papers of the Governors-General of India: Warren Hastings'' (2 vols., 1910)<ref name="ODNB"/>
*''Life of Lord Roberts'' (1914)<ref name="ODNB"/>
*''The Life of Lord Clive'' (2 vols., 1918)<ref name="ODNB"/>
*''Selections from the State Papers of the Governors-General of India: Lord Cornwallis'' (2 vols., 1926)<ref name="ODNB"/>

Other works were:

*''The Famine in India'' (1897), pamphlet<ref name="ODNB"/>
*Articles on the [[deforestation]] of India in the ''[[Bombay Gazette]]''.<ref name="IBD"/>

==Family==
In 1877 Forrest married Emma Georgina Viner, daughter of Thomas Viner of Crawley, Sussex. They had a son and a daughter.<ref name="ODNB"/>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forrest, George William David Stark}}
[[Category:1845 births]]
[[Category:1926 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century British historians]]
[[Category:English journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century British historians]]
[[Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge]]

George William Forrest - Revision history

ErmaT39411378 at 14:08, 22 January 2024