Who's Who	Index	Who's Who

George Baker Forster
Source: Transactions of the Institute of Mining Engineers

Links to other pages on this site

22 Jan 1862	—	Newspaper article (The Calamity In Northumberland)
23 Jan 1862	—	Newspaper article (The Terrible Calamity In The Hartley Colliery)
25 Nov 1862	—	Newspaper article (The Colliery Explosion)
09 Sep 1880	—	Newspaper article (Terrible Colliery Explosion)
15 Sep 1880	—	Newspaper article (The Seaham Colliery Explosion)
14 Dec 1880	—	Newspaper article (The Seaham Colliery Explosion)
1904	—	Article in the Transactions of the Mining Engineers

Membership

1864-1865, North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers. Position: Member; Address: Backworth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Membership

1870-1871, North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers. Position: Council Member; Address: Backworth House, near Newcastle-on-Tyne. (Ex-officio - Retiring Vice-President).

1870-1871, North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers. Position: Member; Address: M.A., Backworth House, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Member of Council); Elected: 05 Nov 1852

1873 - George Baker Forster
Source: Miners of Northumberland and Durham (1873)

Biographical Notes

Mr. George Baker Forster is the son of Mr. Thomas Emmerson Forster, a colliery engineer, well known in the North of England. Mr. Forster was educated at Cambridge University, where he graduated M.A., and was destined for the profession of a Clergyman in the Church of England, but he was never ordained; and preferring his father's calling he threw away all chances of promotion that might have been open to him in the church, and got an engagement as a mining engineer. He first came prominently before the public in connection with the Hartley accident, and the part he took in endeavouring to clear the shaft, not only proved him to be a man of great skill and ability but one possessing a generous sympathy with his fellow men. Since then he has often taken part in public matters connected with collieries, and has won a confidence not only of the majority of the coal owners in the district, but also in the entire body of men. He is also a partner in several collieries, including Cambois and Cowpen, and he was mainly instrumental in building a place of meeting for the men at the first named colliery a year or two ago. Mr. Forster was elected as one of the examiners into the qualifications of candidates for viewerships, under the new Coal Mines Regulation Act, and has besides been appointed by the shareholders of the Co-operative Coal Mining Company of Newcastle as their engineer.
Source: Miners of Northumberland and Durham (1873)

Membership

1880-1881, North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers. Position: Member; Address: M.A., Backworth House, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne (President); Elected: 05 Nov 1852

1880-1881, North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers. Position: President; Address: M.A., Backworth House, Newcastle-on-Tyne.

Census

Address: Backworth House, Earsdon

(Ref: RG11/5088/78/9)

Name	Age	Rel	Mar	Occupation	Where Born
FORSTER, George B.	48	Head	Mar	J.P. & Mining Engineer	DUR: Easington
FORSTER, Mary P.	25	Dau	Unn		Paris British Subject, France
FORSTER, Charles W.	17	Son	Unn		NBL: Morpeth
NICHOLSON, John H.	17	Nephew	Unn		DUR: Sunderland
HINDMARCH, Mary	50	Serv	Wid	Cook	NBL: Benwell
DOUGLAS, Isabella	31	Serv	Unn	Housemaid	MDX: London
PAXTON, Sarah Jane	21	Serv	Mar	Housemaid (Domestic Servant)	DUR: Ryton

Membership

1888-1889, North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers. Position: Council; Address: M.A., F.G.S., Lesbury, R.S.O., Northumberland.

1888-1889, North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers. Position: Member; Address: M.A., F.G.S., Lesbury, R.S.O., Northumberland (Past-President, Member of Council); Elected: 05 Nov 1852

Membership

1889-1890, Institute of Mining Engineers. Position: Member; Address: M.A., North Jesmond, Newcastle-on-Tyne.

1889-1890, Institute of Mining Engineers. Position: Vice-President; Address: North Jesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Membership

1896-1897, Institute of Mining Engineers. Position: Member; Address: Farnley Hill, Corbridge-upon-Tyne.

Membership

1898-1899, Institute of Mining Engineers. Position: Vice-President; Address: 3, Eldon Square, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Farnley Hill, Corbridge-upon-Tyne

1898-1899, Institute of Mining Engineers. Position: Vice-President; Address: 3, Eldon Square, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Biographical Notes

The Late Mr. George Baker Forster

The President (Mr. J. G. Weeks) moved that a vote of condolence be sent to Mrs. Forster and the family of the late Mr. G. B. Forster. He was well known to the members personally, and was identified with the Institute almost from its commencement. He was president from 1881 to 1884, and as a proof how unremitting he was in his attention to the interests of the Institute, it was stated that he was present at 19 out of 21 meetings held during his presidency. He took great interest in their discussions, and respecting his helpful and valuable services, he felt that he could not say enough.

Mr. R. Donald Bain (H.M. Inspector of Mines), in seconding the vote of condolence, stated that 30 years ago he served his apprenticeship under the late Mr. Forster’s father, and a friendship sprang up then, which had been continued throughout his life. Mr. G. B. Forster had attained to great eminence in his profession, and was always willing to give his advice to those who sought it. The mining industry, not only of this district, but throughout Great Britain, must deplore the death of so eminent an engineer, and a man of such excellent personal qualities.

Mr. A. L. Steavenson (Durham) also paid a tribute to the memory of Mr. G. B. Forster, whom he had probably known longer than any member present. He made his acquaintance in the forties, when he was reading with the vicar of Darlington, after that he went to Cambridge, and ultimately became a mining engineer. During the past 50 years, they had been the best of friends, and had had many talks about the affairs of the Institute. Mr. G. B. Forster maintained that it was the duty of all members to attend the meetings, even at some considerable inconvenience to themselves, and especially of the older members, in order that the younger men might have the benefit of their experience.

The vote of condolence was unanimously adopted.

Source: Transactions of the Institution of Mining Engineers, Vol. XXI

Biographical Notes

Mr. George Baker Forster, who died on January 18th, 1901, was born at Haswell, in the county of Durham, on October 13th, 1832, his father, Mr. Thomas Emerson Forster, the wellknown mining engineer, being at that time the resident viewer of Haswell colliery.

Mr. Forster was educated at Shincliffe, under the Rev. Isaac Todd, at Repton school, and at St. Peter’s school, York. In October, 1850, he went into residence at St. John’s College, Cambridge, and in January, 1854, he came out in the Mathematical Tripos as a Senior Optime. It was on the river, however, that his chief distinctions were gained, and perhaps not the least valuable part of his education — his first experience in the management of men. Mr. Forster rowed bow in the Cambridge boat in 1853, when the Oxford and Cambridge crews met at Henley regatta as the only competitors for the Grand Challenge Cup. The race was one of the most exciting ever seen on the Henley reach; but in those days the course extended round Poplar Point to within a few feet of Henley Bridge, and Cambridge had the outside station. Oxford won by 18 inches, though Cambridge shot 6 feet ahead immediately after passing the post.

After leaving Cambridge Mr. Forster served an apprenticeship as a mining engineer, and began his lifelong connection with the coal-trade of the North of England. In 1858, he was appointed viewer of Cowpen colliery in Northumberland, which was in that year acquired by its present owners; and this position he continued to hold until his death — a period of over forty-two years. Shortly after his appointment to Cowpen, North Seaton colliery was amalgamated with the concern, as well as the coal-field underlying the Cambois estate in the same neighbourhood. New pits were sunk by Mr. Forster both on this royalty and on the Newsham royalty at Cowpen; and under his management the output of the combined collieries was raised from the small figure at which it stood in 1858 to that which it has recently attained, of over one million tons yearly.

Mr. Forster was also associated with the development of Blyth Harbour, for which he had been a Commissioner since the passing of the Act creating the Blyth Harbour Commission. The labours of that Commission, in which Mr. Forster took an active part, have conferred great benefits on the coal-trade of the neighbouring district, and have created a prosperous and commodious port, which is now entitled to rank with the Tyne and the Wear as one of the great coal-exporting harbours of the north-east coast.

Mr. Forster also sank and laid out Bearpark colliery, near Durham, and Longhirst colliery, near Morpeth, and he carried out extensive improvements at the Nunnery colliery, near Sheffield. In later years, he was consulting engineer to the Walisend and Hebburn Coal Company, and superintended the important work of reopening the famous Wallsend colliery after a stoppage of forty years. This last was a work of much responsibility, since the colliery had been flooded and very extensive pumping operations were necessary to clear the pit of water.

In the West Cumberland coal-field, Mr. Forster, in conjunction with his father, for some years superintended Lord Lonsdale’s collieries at Whitehaven; he also had business connections of long standing with the haematite ore-mines of the same county, and with the ironstone-mines of the Cleveland district.

In addition to his active colliery work, Mr. Forster had a very extensive practice as a consulting mining engineer, for a considerable time in partnership with his father, Mr. T. E. Forster, and the late Mr. T. G. Hurst, and latterly with Mr. T. E. Forster, his son. He was mineral agent to numerous royalty-owners in the North of England, and in 1890 he was appointed a member of the Royal Commission on Mining Royalties. The Commission had the rare distinction of presenting a unanimous report.

Coal-mining is not without its dangers, though happily the progress of scientific engineering has made those dangers far smaller than once they were. A serious colliery-accident is an event which entails great suffering and terrible responsibility, but it never fails to bring the nobler qualities of human nature into prominence. Even in lighter cases of accident Mr. Forster was always ready to afford valuable advice and active assistance, not only at the collieries with which he was personally connected, but in all places where his long experience and profound knowledge of mining could be of use. It is not many years since an underground fire broke out at one of his own collieries, and he spent the whole of Christmas Day down the pit, watching and directing his men, as they turned the hose on the smouldering coal and then hewed it away till the heat called for the hose again.

But there were far graver occasions when all his powers were fully and freely exerted. He took a leading part in the work of rescue and restoration after the explosions at Seaham, West Stanley, Elemore and Usworth collieries, — a work of such responsibility as few men are ever called upon to undertake; for on the skill and judgment of the adviser depend the lives of many and the livelihood of hundreds. At an earlier period of his career, there occurred an accident which thrilled the country as few accidents have thrilled it since; and of the two who took the most prominent part in the attempt to rescue the entombed men at Hartley colliery, Mr. Forster was one.

It was on January 16th, 1862, that the disaster occurred. The colliery was worked by means of a single shaft, which for purposes of ventilation was divided by a brattice of timber. About the middle of the forenoon, the huge iron beam of the pumping-engine suddenly snapped at the centre, and the outer half of it plunged into the pit, killing five men who were at that moment coming up in the cage, and destroying the brattice, as well as injuring the sides of the shaft. The shaft was filled with many feet of tightly compressed wreckage, and there were a hundred-and-ninety-nine men and boys in the workings below.

It was only a few hours later that Mr. Forster reached the scene of the accident, and he at once took the leading part in directing the work of rescue, which Mr. William Coulson, the master-sinker, was called in with his men to attempt. There were strong hopes that the imprisoned men would live for many days, and the work of clearing the shaft was pressed on with extraordinary energy, day and night without cessation. But the dangers and difficulties were appalling; the sides of the shaft had been seriously damaged and threatened to fall in upon the workers, so that much precious time had to be spent in securing them, and much of the wrecked timber had been pounded into such small fragments that it had to be dug out with shovels. The anxious crowds that waited at the pit-mouth began to murmur at the slow progress of the work, and there were not wanting wiseacres who aggravated the horrors of suspense by declaring that the management was hopelessly at fault, and propounding various useless and chimerical schemes of their own invention.

But still the work went on, and still there was hope; the imprisoned men had a certain amount of food, and there was good water in the pit. Presently, however, a thing happened which told those who knew that there was little chance of saving the men alive. Gas began to leak up through the wreckage in such quantities that many of the sinkers had to be carried out of the pit unconscious, and its effect on the candles of the workers showed that it was carbonic oxide, a deadly poison. If the men below had breathed it, they must have been dead days ago; and eventually ‘the fear proved only too well-founded.

From this time the work was carried on with increased difficulty; for it became necessary to construct a cloth-brattice down the upper part of the shaft, to restore the ventilation and draw the gas away; but at last, seven days after the accident, the first explorer penetrated to the place where the men had gathered, and waited, and died; and it was not until three more days had passed that it was possible to bring their bodies to the surface. All that men could do had been done; for a week the rescuers had been risking their lives and after all they had failed.

To show Mr. Forster’s share in the work, we need only quote from the report of the evidence which he gave at the inquest ; for in speaking of the dangers and exertions of the men he has unconsciously borne testimony of himself :—

If more words be needed, let them come from the jury, whose verdict contained the following clause:

The widows and orphans received a touching message of sympathy from Her late Majesty Queen Victoria, herself a newlymade widow, — the first message of the kind that broke the silence after the Prince Consort’s death, and to this day the printed copies of it which were distributed form the most treasured possessions of the few widows that still survive. It is a pathetic coincidence that the same January day saw the brave engineer, who left home and business to direct the work of rescue, laid to rest almost within sight of the scene of the accident, and saw also the passing away of the gracious Lady, who in the first weeks of her widowhood remembered the sorrows of humbler women, and sent them comfort in their affliction.

In the coal-trade of the North of England Mr. Forster held an unequalled position, and exercised a wide and beneficent influence; to quote the resolution, which the Miners’ Association of Northumberland passed on hearing of his death, he was a pioneer in the promotion of harmonious relations between capital and labour. lie was Vice-Chairman of the Northumberland Coal-owners Association, and also of the North of England United Coal-trade Association. He was from its commencement a member of the Northumberland Joint Committee, — a representative body of masters and men which has been the means of settling countless questions on matters of colliery-working; and he was also a member of the Conciliation Board for the regulation of wages in the same county. In 1857, he was elected a member of this Institute; he became President in 1881, and held the office for a term of three years. He was also a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers and a Fellow of the Geological Society. He was a Justice of the Peace for the county of Northumberland, and for a long period Chairman of the Magistrates for the Blyth Petty Sessional Division. He was for many years a member of the Board of Examination under the Coal-mines Regulation Acts, and an examiner of applicants for certificates of competency under the same Acts.

Mr. Forster was the first chairman of the School Board established at Cowpen alter the passing of the Education Act of 1870, and he held that position without interruption for a period of twenty-one years, retiring in 1892. But throughout a career which began long before the days of public elementary education, he took a deep and broad-minded interest in educational matters, and especially in such as tended to place the means of practical scientific education within the reach of working-men. He established schools at all the collieries under his charge, as well as Mechanics’ Institutes, of which he was a hearty supporter; but while he took an active interest in everything that promoted the well-being of his men, he wisely encouraged self-help and selfreliance, as is shown by the following instance, which is still remembered by those who reaped the benefit of his wisdom. In 1872, there was an epidemic of scarlet fever at one of the collieryvillages, which was found to be caused by bad milk, and a deputation of the men came to Mr. Forster to ask whether the collierycompany could not undertake the duty of providing a better supply. Mr. Forster told them that this was not within the company’s powers, but he suggested that the men should join together and start a co-operative dairy-farm of their own; there were two fields included in the lease of the colliery, and he promised that the company would make them tenants of these fields at the same rent as was paid to the lessors, and would also erect the necessary buildings, charging only a low rate of interest on the outlay. The suggestion was adopted and carried into effect; the farm was started and managed by a committee of the men, and to this day it continues a useful and profitable institution.

With the men employed at the collieries, Mr. Forster’s relations were always of the happiest nature, and he was never so pleased and interested as when his duties brought him into direct contact with the colliery-officials and workmen. While he did all that lay in his power to promote the interests of the owners, he never failed to consider the welfare and the feelings of the men; and in his management he was conscious of a bond between himself and those who served under him, which was better and more enduring than the bare legal relation of employer and employed. He had also the rare capacity of arousing enthusiasm in his subordinates; some of his colliery-officials had been with him for forty years, and their feelings towards him were of the most devoted attachment. He possessed in a high degree the tact and sympathy which workmen, and especially those of the north, readily understand and appreciate; and above all his dealings with them were marked by a spirit of absolute fairness, and a most scrupulous regard for truth and justice. These characteristics won him, in a degree which few employers have ever enjoyed, the esteem and confidence not only of his own men but also of all the workmen of the surrounding districts.

Mr. Forster was married in 1854 to Hannah Elizabeth, elder daughter of the Rev. Isaac Todd of Shincliffe, and leaves a family of four sons and three daughters.

 

Mr. A. L. Steavenson moved a vote of thanks to the writer of the memoir of a friend whose loss they all so greatly deplored; he was sure that future generations would be glad to have so excellent a record of his useful life. The memoir was an interesting one, but they could have expected no less from a writer of such ability as Mr. R. H. Forster, who was the author of The Hand of the Spoiler.

Mr. W. O. Wood seconded the vote of thanks, which was cordially adopted.

Source: Transactions of the Institution of Mining Engineers, Vol. XXIII

This is a simulated Family Group Sheet using information from elsewhere on this site (census returns, tombstones, newspapers, etc.). It is not intended to be a definitive rendition of the family relationships - we do not have detailed knowledge of the family.

1  George FORSTER

+  Hannah ARCHER

2  Thomas Emerson FORSTER  (b: 20 Oct 1802, d: 1875)

+  Phoebe DODD

3  George Baker FORSTER  (b: 13 Oct 1832, d: 18 Jan 1901)

+  Hannah Elizabeth TODD

4  Mary P. FORSTER

4  Charles W. FORSTER  (b: 1864)

4  Thomas Emmerson FORSTER

  Research Notes for George Baker Forster

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