Alec Forbes

Bank: National Provincial Bank of England

Place of work: London office

Died: 3 September 1916

Alec Forbes was born in Stokesley, Yorkshire on 20 April 1888, the son of William Guthrie Forbes, a doctor, and his wife Louisa. He had an elder sister, Nina, and a younger brother, William. Dr Forbes died in 1889, when Alec was 17 months old.

In May 1904, when Forbes was 16 years old, he went to work for National Provincial Bank of England as apprentice at its Stokesley branch. His brother William followed in his footsteps two years later.

Forbes moved to Bolton branch as a clerk in August 1907, and to Lowestoft branch two months later. In May 1910 he moved to London office. His manager there described him as 'intelligent, thoroughly reliable and capable and should do well.'

Forbes joined the army in August 1914, immediately upon the outbreak of the First World War. He was drafted to France in November 1914 as a Private in the London Regiment. Over the next two years he fought at Mons, Neuve Chapelle, Festubert and the Somme. By 1916 he was a Captain in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and had been mentioned in despatches.

Captain Forbes was killed in action in France on 3 September 1916. He was 28 years old. His younger brother William, also of the bank, arrived in France as an officer in the Royal Garrison Artillery less than a month later, and served there for two years before his death in September 1918.

Alec Forbes is commemorated on a bank war memorial held at NatWest Group Archives.