John Forrest - Early Years and Family Life

Early Years and Family Life

Forrest, was one of 10 children of William and Margaret Forrest, who came out as servants under Dr John Ferguson in 1842. He was born at Picton near Bunbury in what was then the British colony of Western Australia. He was also known as Jack to his family. Among his seven brothers were Alexander Forrest and David Forrest. John attended the government school in Bunbury under John Hislop until the age of twelve, when he was sent north to Perth to attend the Bishop's Collegiate School, now Hale School, starting there in January 1860. In November 1863, he was apprenticed to a government land surveyor named Thomas Carey. When his term of apprenticeship ended in November 1865, he became the first man born and educated in the colony to qualify as a land surveyor. He then commenced work as a surveyor with the government's Lands and Surveys Department.

On 2 September 1876 in Perth, Forrest married Margaret Elvire Hamersley. The Hamersleys were a very wealthy family, and Forrest gained substantially in wealth and social standing from the marriage. However, to their disappointment the marriage was childless.

Read more about this topic:  John Forrest

Famous quotes containing the words early, years, family and/or life:

    Make-believe is the avenue to much of the young child’s early understanding. He sorts out impressions and tries out ideas that are foundational to his later realistic comprehension. This private world sometimes is a quiet, solitary
    world. More often it is a noisy, busy, crowded place where language grows, and social skills develop, and where perseverance and attention-span expand.
    James L. Hymes, Jr. (20th century)

    Cautiousness in judgment is nowadays to be recommended to each and every one: if we gained only one incontestable truth every ten years from each of our philosophical writers the harvest we reaped would be sufficient.
    —G.C. (Georg Christoph)

    You can read the best experts on child care. You can listen to those who have been there. You can take a whole childbirth and child-care course without missing a lesson. But you won’t really know a thing about yourselves and each other as parents, or your baby as a child, until you have her in your arms. That’s the moment when the lifelong process of bringing up a child into the fold of the family begins.
    Stella Chess (20th century)

    Newspapermen are either drunkards or idealists, Miss Rutledge. I’m afraid I’m both. But however soiled his hands, the journalist goes staggering through life with a beacon raised.
    Ben Hecht (1893–1964)