The Honourable Sir Alastair Granville Forbes (3 January 1908 – August 2001) was a Caribbean-born British colonial civil servant who served with the

Colonial Legal Service The Colonial Service, also known as His/Her Majesty's Colonial Service and replaced in 1954 by Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service (HMOCS), was the British government service that administered most of Britain's overseas possessions, under the aut ...

and ended his career as President of the Courts of Appeal for St Helena, the Falkland Islands and British Antarctic Territories from 1965 until 1988.

Early life

Forbes was born in

St Kitts Saint Kitts, officially the Saint Christopher Island, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis cons ...

, where his father, Granville Forbes, farmed and was educated at

Blundell's School Blundell's School is a co-educational day and boarding independent school in the English public school tradition, located in Tiverton, Devon. It was founded in 1604 under the will of Peter Blundell, one of the richest men in England at the tim ...

in Tiverton and read law at

Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refounded ...

. After being called to the

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

, he joined the

in 1932.

Career

Forbes' first overseas posting was to

Dominica Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically ...

in the

British West Indies The British West Indies (BWI) were colonized British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grena ...

in 1936 as a

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

and government officer, where much of his time was spent compiling an index of the island's laws (his assistant for many years was the barrister (later Dame)

Eugenia Charles Dame Mary Eugenia Charles, (15 May 1919 – 6 September 2005) was a Dominican politician who was Prime Minister of Dominica from 21 July 1980 until 14 June 1995. The first female lawyer in Dominica, she was Dominica's first, and to date only, fe ...

, who subsequently co-founded the

Dominica Freedom Party The Dominica Freedom Party (DFP) is a conservative political party in Dominica. It shares much of the same socially and economically conservative principles as the Conservative Party in the UK. The party has been led by Bernard Hurtault since 2 ...

and in 1980 became the Caribbean's first female prime minister). After a period as a Crown attorney in the

Leeward Islands french: Îles-Sous-le-Vent , image_name = , image_caption = ''Political'' Leeward Islands. Clockwise: Antigua and Barbuda, Guadeloupe, Saint kitts and Nevis. , image_alt = , locator_map = , location = Caribbean SeaNorth Atlantic Ocean , coor ...

in 1939, Forbes moved in 1940 to

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

, where he served progressively as resident magistrate, crown counsel, solicitor general and assistant legal adviser to the Western Pacific High Commission. In the latter capacity he revised and redrafted all the laws of Fiji, for which he was offered (and turned down) a knighthood. His next tour, beginning in 1947, was to Malaya as a legal draftsman, and in 1950 he was appointed Solicitor General of

Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in southern Africa, south central Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by Amalgamation (politics), amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-West ...

. The following year he became Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice and Solicitor General in

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

(later to become

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

). In 1956, he was appointed a puisne judge in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

, and the next year he was promoted a Justice of Appeal at the

Court of Appeal for Eastern Africa The East African Court of Appeal (EACA) was a court which served as the appellate court for the British colonies in eastern Africa and west Asia. The court was established in 1902 as the Eastern African Court of Appeal and was the appellate court ...

. He became Vice President of the same court in 1958, and from 1963 until 1964 served as Federal Justice of the Federal Supreme Court of

Rhodesia and Nyasaland The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, also known as the Central African Federation or CAF, was a colonial federation that consisted of three southern African territories: the self-governing British colony of Southern Rhodesia and the B ...

. He was President of the

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

for the

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, V ...

from 1965 until 1976, and for

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

from 1970 until 1983. He served as a member of the panel of chairmen of industrial tribunals from 1965 until 1973, and was President of the Pensions Appeals Tribunals for England and Wales from 1973 until 1980. He married Constance Irene Mary Hughes-White (known as Irma) in 1936 and was knighted in 1960. He had two children, Anne Margaret Banting (née Forbes b 1936) and Elizabeth Farrant (née Forbes b.1938 d.2015)

Sources

*Extracted from the obituary of Sir Alastair Forbes, The Daily Telegraph, 11 August 2001 {{DEFAULTSORT:Forbes, Alastair 1908 births 2001 deaths British expatriates in Saint Kitts and Nevis People educated at Blundell's School Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge English barristers Members of Gray's Inn Knights Bachelor 20th-century English judges British colonial judges in the Americas Gold Coast (British colony) people British Kenya judges British colonial judges in Africa Northern Rhodesia people Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland judges British Seychelles judges British colonial judges in Europe British Antarctic Territory people Falkland Islands judges Colony of Fiji judges Saint Helenian people East African Court of Appeal judges Colonial Legal Service officers