A salute to Douglas Wrexham Eric Forrest (1908-1995) — Kingston College’s gentle giant
On April 16, 1925, Kingston College opened its doors at 114 ¾ East Street with the first 49 students. For Anglican Bishop George Frederick Cecil de Carteret and 32-year-old Anglican priest Percival William Gibson, their vision of a high school for boys in downtown Kingston was realised.
Both saw the urgent need for a high school that would “meet the needs of the ever-increasing number of boys in Kingston and lower St Andrew requiring a secondary education, many of whom [could not] gain admission to [the] present schools through lack of accommodation”.
High school enrolment for boys in the capital city in 1925 was less than one thousand. Jamaica College had 124 students; Calabar 140; and Wolmer’s Boys’ 208.
Consistent with his upbringing, Percival Gibson, the school’s first headmaster, was clear that the mission of Kingston College would be “to give an education based upon principles that will make for the development of character no less than of intellect”. To this end he often reminded the students, “I want you boys to be Christian gentlemen, and if you become that, I will have succeeded at Kingston College”.
In 1926 Percival Gibson accepted the invitation to be the celebrant at St John’s Anglican Church in Black River in the parish of St Elizabeth. After the service, in conversation with the choirmaster, Sanford Forrest, Gibson was informed that Sanford’s 18-year-old son, Douglas, was in need of permanent employment. Gibson interviewed young Douglas and offered him a teaching post at Kingston College, which he took up in the September term that year.
Douglas Wrexham Eric Forrest was the third of five children born to Sanford Tatham Forrest and his wife Mable, nee Tate. Both were devoted members of the St John’s Anglican Church, where Mable served as the church organist, while Sanford combined the roles of lay-reader and choirmaster. The priorities in the Forrest home were the inculcation of Christian values and education and training of the children.
All five siblings were scholarship winners and Douglas entered the elite Munro College in 1920 as the winner of the parish scholarship. Enrolment at Munro had not yet reached a hundred and the student body was dominated by the scion of the white planter/merchant class, who openly subjected coloured and black students to racial discrimination.
Scholarship winners, who were designated ‘foundationers’, were required to leave school at age 16. As a result Douglas Forrest, despite his excellent academic record, was not able to sit the Cambridge Higher Schools Certificate Examinations after passing the Junior and Senior Cambridge Examinations at Munro. The experience of discrimination at Munro would have deepened Forrest’s life-long commitment to providing every opportunity for poor students to realise their abilities to the fullest.
It was in these circumstances that Douglas Forrest joined the staff at Kingston College in September 1926. The learning environment that Headmaster Gibson sought to create for the boys was one that combined the pursuit of academic excellence with the inculcation of Christian values. As a student, Gibson himself had achieved both. At St George’s College he was first in every subject and was a model of moral rectitude. At the Jamaica Church Theological College in Cross Roads, which was later renamed St Peter’s Theological College, he maintained his record of academic excellence, completing the course of study in 1915 at age 22, which necessitated him having to wait for two years to enter the diaconate. He was ordained as a priest in 1927 and by then was recognised as one of Jamaica’s leading classical scholars.
In 1934 Kingston College moved from East Street to occupy the new buildings at Clovelly Park on North Street. Enrolment had increased to 185 and Headmaster Gibson was supported by George Clough, second master; Rev R O C King, sports master; and Douglas Forrest who taught French, English and mathematics. Four KC old boys, F A Williams, A F Brown, Allan Morais and L L Murad, were taken on to assist with the teaching.
Douglas Forrest immediately demonstrated a capacity for long hours of work, and this, together with his deep interest in the welfare of every student, made him the automatic choice to succeed George Clough as deputy headmaster when Clough resigned in 1939.
For the next 17 years Douglas Forrest would anchor the administration of the school as deputy headmaster. He became a mentor and benefactor for the boys and seized every opportunity to make music and drama an integral part of the learning experience for every boy. However, young Forrest was also clear on the importance of maintaining discipline in the student body, and the effectiveness of caning in the pursuit of this objective. On one occasion he was asked by the headmaster to cane an entire form and he complied with rigour.
For 17 years, the Gibson-Forrest partnership guided the expansion of the school and by the end of that period, Kingston College had become Jamaica’s leading high school for boys. In those years Evan Morris won the Rhodes Scholarship; John Manley, Norman Rae, Derek Kirkpatrick and Donald Jones all won the Jamaica Scholarship; Herbert Walker and F Smith were the Centenary Scholars; Ross Murray and Barry Reckord were the Issa Scholarship winners; while T C McMorris, Hugh Moss Solomon, and Neville McMorris were all winners of Open Scholarships to the University College of the West Indies.
In sports, K C was equally dominant, winning the Inter-schools Athletics Championship Cup in 1942, 1950, 1951, 1953 and 1954; the Manning Cup for football in 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1952; the Olivier Shield in 1949 and 1952; and the Sunlight Cup for cricket in 1941, 1942, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1953 and 1955.
I attended Kingston College between 1951 and 1958. Only to his face did students address him as Mr Forrest. Behind his back he was “Mr Chips” or “Uncle Douggie”. He made every KC boy feel that they were an important cog in the school’s wheel. I experienced first-hand the euphoria and the morale that the achievements of the golden decade generated in the student body, and still recall my emotions as a member of the team that won the Manning Cup in 1958.
On December 15, 1955, Percival Gibson was elected the first African-Jamaican Lord Bishop of Jamaica, and as a consequence had to relinquish the headmastership of Kingston College. Fortunately, he remained a member of the teaching staff. The entire KC family and the education fraternity of Jamaica welcomed the elevation of Douglas Forrest as Kingston College’s second headmaster in 1956.
Douglas Forrest, in his new role as headmaster, hit the ground running, as KC continued to lead the other boys’ high schools in academics and sports. In 1956 Edward Clarke won the Jamaica Scholarship, and he was followed by Lloyd Demetrius in 1957. That year, both Lloyd Coke and Arnaldo Ventura won the Open Scholarships to the University College of the West Indies (UCWI).
The academic achievements of the graduating class of 1958 have yet to be equalled by any graduating class of the other high schools. Seven members of that KC class — T A Mair, Timothy James, F Asencio, J Meikle, Basil Been, and Glen Miller won government scholarships; Jonathan Earle, an engineering scholarship; Richard Thompson, Ovaltine Scholarship; and Orlando Patterson, Keith Amiel and Maurice Wilson, the UCWI Open Scholarships. Another member of that class was Carl Stone, who went on to become Jamaica’s most eminent social scientist.
During the remainder of Douglas Forrest’s tenure as headmaster, Kingston College continued to win more scholarships to tertiary institutions at home and abroad than any other high school.
In sports, KC was equally dominant during the Douglas Forrest years. The school won the Athletic Championships for 13 consecutive years (1962-1975). Two KC old boys, Lindy Headley and Patrick Robinson, were members of Jamaica’s sprint relay team at the 1964 Olympic Games, which equalled the World record and placed fourth in the finals. Another KC old boy, Lennox Miller, won the silver medal in the 100 metres at the 1968 Olympic Games.
In cricket, the school cricket won the Sunlight Cup in 1962, 1964 and 1970 and produced in Michael Holding one of the greatest fast bowlers the world has known. The victorious Manning Cup and Oliver Shield team of 1964 and 1965, which included Lloyd McLean, Neville Oxford, Trevor Harris and Tony Keyes, is regarded as one of the finest schoolboy teams of all times.
In 1967 KC gained its first lien on the Inter-schools Senior League Basketball Competition. Beginning in 1966, KC held the Kelall Cup for Inter-schools Table Tennis for four consecutive years and in swimming the school also held the Simpson Shield for four consecutive years from 1969-1972.
There was, however, much more to the Douglas Forrest years than academics and sports. Peter Maxwell, who was head boy of Kingston College for the year 1956 – 1957, delivered the second in the series of the Douglas Forrest Lectures sponsored by the Kingston College Old Boys’ Association. It was a presentation that should have been published in full. The following excerpt from that lecture provides an illuminating picture of the impact of Douglas Forrest on the school community during his tenure as headmaster.
“Douglas Forrest…devoted countless hours to the chapel choir’s rehearsals, its leadership at regular Sunday morning services, special performances at school functions, annual Christmas carol services, and by invitation, at churches across the island.
He also encouraged the appreciation of classical music by staging Friday evening concerts of recorded music in those pre-television days and later, at lunch-hour concerts as well. The interest generated in instrumental music led to the building of a school orchestra, with Oswald Murray, and then Barrington (Barry) Reckord being members and then leaders of the 20-strong group in the 1940s and early 1950s.
The choir he nurtured grew in sound and in spirit, and its first recordings came in the early 1950s with some 78 rpm samples, and then two 33 rpm albums…From them, we savoured the clear treble descants of Norman Byfield and the sure tenor solos of Anton Walker, embedded in carefully modulated choral renditions of hymns and carols. By that time, the choir had welcomed the expertise of Mr Barry Davies, an English organist and choirmaster, who teamed up with Mr Forrest and helped to make the KC Chapel Choir the symbol of excellence in its field. On the occasion of the school’s 75th anniversary in 2000, the choir produced a double CD album in memory of Mr Douglas Forrest. This excellence remains today as exhibited by the new Songs of Praise CD launched last month under the direction of current choirmaster, Audley Davidson.
The French classes frequently led the more proficient pupils into taking part in the French Drama Festival, for which Mr Forrest directed play after play — usually scenes from Molière’s satirical comedies — holding rehearsals at his home off the Eastwood Park Road when necessary, sometimes late into the evening, obliging his dear mother no less than his pupils, to put up with them.
The French Drama Festival was conducted by the Jamaican branch of the Alliance Française, of which Mr Forrest had been a founding member. For his contributions to teaching French and his work at the Alliance, he was later knighted by the Government of France.
When Douglas Forrest passed on in 1995, we are told that both Houses of Parliament rose to pay him homage. He has been memorialised at the school by the naming of the administrative block after him — and we note that earlier this year plans were unveiled for the expansion of that Douglas Forrest Building.”
Another Kingston College old boy, Robert Fletcher, provides us with a sober reflection of the extent to which Douglas Forrest treated every student as special, and devoted himself to their welfare.
The KC chapel choir was very special to “Dougs”. He was the administrator, choirmaster in the absence of a resident choirmaster, section coach and bass in many of our performances. Some Sundays we also sang at Evensong, the Anglican name for evening services. One particular Sunday evening as we were being fed, he noticed that one of the trebles was missing.
He left for his office and when he returned he beckoned to two of the older boys and myself to accompany him…and found ourselves on Spanish Town Road. He was looking, he said, for no 127. After what seemed like interminable time of asking, one person seeing the purple blazers, offered to help us…We went in #127 and there arrayed before us was a huge community of shacks, zinc fences and tracks, as well as curious onlookers and many children playing.
At a turn from one of the tracks, we came upon our schoolmate in a bath pan stark naked, with wet rag and soap…A slim and visibly embarrassed lady came out. Mr Forrest did not give her the opportunity to speak. He introduced himself and she said, “Sar, mi hear bout yuh every day but mi never si yuh yet”
He said, “we have come for him”. This drew from her an attempt at a long and hushed explanation as to why he was late, the effect of which was that she had just managed to borrow the money to give him the bus fare. Seeing that a little crowd gathering, he held her elbow and took her inside the shack. We did not hear everything either of them said but we heard him say, “Your son is the most important boy in the school and the choir. Come see me on Monday.” By this time he was dressed in his blazer and we left.
That boy went on to become a celebrated neurosurgeon.
Douglas Forrest retired as headmaster in 1970. Before him Bishop Percival Gibson had established a facilitating environment for the nurturing of leadership. As a consequence, a number of his staff left K C to become headmasters in other schools. These included E A Barrett and later J A Crick to Cornwall; Sydney Scott to Glenmuir; Osbourne Bell to St Jago; Edgar U Cargill to St Mary High School; Winston Johnson to Holmwood; Mortimer Geddes to Titchfield; S W Isaac Henry to St Andrew Technical; Aubyn Haye to Ferncourt; and Eric Frater to Rusea’s.
Under Forrest, this tradition was maintained with Wesley White going to Rusea’s; Joseph Earle to Calabar; Ripton Bailey to Charlie Smith; W A Murray to Church Teachers College’s; Noel White to Camperdown; and the KC old boys — Don Taylor, and Wally Johnson who became headmasters at their alma mater.
After retiring as headmaster in 1970, Douglas Forrest continued to teach and to take an avid interest in everything at KC until he retired in 1991.
High school education faced an increasingly challenging social and economic environment. The introduction of the 70:30 system in 1963 allocated 70 per cent of the free places to high schools to children from primary schools.
In 1973, the granting of free education dramatically increased access for children of the poor to high school education. However, with the onset of the economic crisis, high schools were faced with the twin challenges of over-crowding and under-resourcing. Class sizes quickly grew beyond the capacity of teachers to give the kind of individual attention that boys needed. The physical facilities and amenities suffered from lack of maintenance.
Violence and aggression increasingly became the norm of social behaviour in boys’ schools. A survey done by sociologist, Pat Anderson, showed that 26.8 per cent of all secondary school students had attended school for four years or more without any educational certification of any kind.
It was in this challenging environment that Mrs Frances-Marie Coke, who joined the staff at Kingston College and became head of the English Department, was motivated by Douglas Forrest to take on the challenge of preparing KC boys to enter the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation’s Schools’ Challenge Quiz. As she later recalled:
“Mr Forrest loomed across the campus. He picked up paper in the hallways and huddled with groups of young men, discussing matters of great weight – history, politics, music, French, art, literature. He taught senior students and gave extra lessons to weak students. He captured boys during lunchtime and force-fed them classical music until some were converted and others learned how to escape. He worked with the choir master during countless hours of rehearsals, chugging along to regular Sunday morning services, special performances at school functions, and annual carol services at churches and chapels.
And he tended his garden of roses.”
Before his retirement, thanks to the work of Frances Coke, Douglas Forrest would see Kingston College win the Schools’ Challenge Quiz in 1974, 1975, 1977 and 1985.
In retirement, Douglas Forrest continued to devote his energies to the upliftment of KC boys. His nephew, Mike Fennell, whose record of public service includes the presidency of the Jamaica Olympic Association, recalls that during his retirement: “Uncle Douglas spent his weekends teaching a number of KC boys who came to the home various subjects, but in particular gave them music classes, classes in musical appreciation the classics. He was very fond of the classics…which he collected and shared with everyone. Some of the boys…endured his classical music in order to receive the tuition that he offered to them. He was very fond of Jamaican music and always found a link between the traditional Jamaican music and the classics. He also started to compose his own music, mainly church music.
“He was always helping those struggling at the bottom and others who were unable to find the financial resources to remain in school. He did not hesitate to spend money from his very meagre salary to assist them in whatever way he could so that they could have the benefit of an education.
“After his so call retirement, he never really retired but kept going to Kingston College every day to teach, to give extra lessons and most importantly to establish the rose garden which became a source of inspiration and pride.
“In his last years, Uncle Douggie shared the same house with my family, and I and my siblings had the benefit of his tutoring and exposure to his passion for music. He was an amazing individual, who to my mind was never fully recognised for what he contributed to so many who came in contact with him.
“Douglas Wrexham Forrest died in 1995 at the age of 87. Sixty-five of those years were devoted to Kingston College…the thousands of KC boys who had passed under his care and guidance paused wherever they were to pay their respects.
“Both houses of the Jamaican Parliament rose to pay him homage…the administrative block at the school has been named after him, and plans were unveiled for the expansion of that Douglas Forrest Building…his interest in tennis was commemorated with the staging of a Forrest Memorial Tennis Classic. The chapel choir remains the proud guardians of the precepts and high standards fostered by Douglas Forrest over several decades.”
For both length and quality of service his contribution to Kingston College and education remains unequalled. His soul now rests in peace and lights perpetual shines on him.