The Hon. Fergus George Arthur Forbes

Rank:	Captain
Street:	Castle Forbes
Townland:	Castleforbes
Town/Village:	Longford
Civil Parish:	Clonguish
Catholic Parish:	Clonguish
Country:
Alternative Address:
Census 1901:	Resident at Castle Forbes www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Longford/Newtownforbes/Castleforbes_Demesne/1553116/
Census 1911:
Regiment/Unit:	Royal Irish Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Regiment Number:	N/A
Date of Death:	23-08-1914
Cause:	Wounds received at Battle of Mons; died as a prisoner-of-war.
Memorial:	St. Symphorien Military Cemetery, Hainaut, Belgium
Information:	Fergus was born in Longford in 1882, the son of the 7th Earl of Granard, and one of a set of twins. He attended The Oratory School in Edgbaston, Warwickshire, a Catholic school which was founded by Cardinal Newman, founder of University College Dublin. Capt. Forbes fought in the Battle of Mons, the first major engagement of WW1. Here he was severely injured and taken as a prisoner of war (P.O.W.) by the German Army to Ricklinghausen (Recklinghausen) hospital, near Munster in Westphalia, where he succumbed to his wounds. Sadly news of his death was not confirmed until after the war in 1919, and had been included in lists of the missing published by his old school in 1915. His twin brother Bertram also served in the war, as did his other brother, the 8th Earl of Granard.
Parents Names:	Son of George Arthur Hastings Forbes, 7th Earl of Granard and the Hon. Frances Petre.
Notes:	His sister, Lady Eva Forbes of Scribblestown, Castleknock, Co. Dublin was given as his next-of-kin; she married Brigadier John Percival de Nicolay, 13th Comte de Cherbourg in 1919
Links:	Link to CWGC; Link to Red Cross P.O.W. entry; Epitaphs of the Great War; family peerage information; The First to Fall, The Ortorian 2014, page 18;