Anthony was born in 1910 in Blackburn, Lancashire to Congregational Minister William Lawson Forster and Mary Gertrude (nee Longworth). They had married in 1909 in Lancashire but by the 1911 census they were living in a 9-roomed house in Forest Gate, East London. They were both aged 36 and employing a nurse for baby Anthony, a cook and a housemaid. William died in 1937 in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, leaving effects of just over £52,740.
Mary Gertrude was born in 1874 in Whalley, Lancs to Alfred Longworth, a cotton spinner and Mary Haworth. Alfred died young and by 1891 Mary Gertrude was boarding in Hastings at a large ladies’ school run by Principal Teacher Mrs Jane Elizabeth Howard, wife of Holley Howard, oil seed crusher. There were several house servants and teachers. The 25 pupils, aged from 13-18 were from all over the country and one from Scotland. The Longworth family were cotton manufacturers – Alfred’s father Solomon and two brothers were all in the business, his brother Richard a clergyman.
Anthony initially spent some time in the Army, in the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers until he had to leave with a chest complaint. He returned to Cambridge, where he had obtained a degree in Classics, studied Medicine there and at St Barts.
By 1939 he was a medical student in Essex and employing two female domestic servants. His 25-year old married sister Dorothy Charnock was visiting.
In July 1948 Anthony married Phyllis Margaret Banham in Watford, Hertfordshire.
Phyllis was a widow, her husband Flight-Lieutenant David de Bower Banham having been killed on active service in September 1943, aged 34 whilst serving with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He was an accountant in public practice in civilian life and the son of Rev Vivian Greaves Banham, M.C. and Bar, M.A. of Aynhoe, Northants. Vivian had been awarded the Military Cross in 1919, serving in the Church Army, Royal Army Chaplains Department 1914-20. Phyllis and David had two sons together, Richard and Christopher.
Anthony, then in his early thirties, had met Phyllis when she was taking in paying guests after her husband died. In 1933 Anthony had purchased a 1925 Alvis 12-50 Sports Tourer motor car and he used this to take Phyllis on honeymoon.
The car was named ‘Belinda’, apparently after ‘Belinda Blue-Eyes’, a strip-cartoon character from 1936 in the Daily Mirror. The couple and Phyllis’ boys moved to Yoxford where Anthony, who by then had qualified as a G.P., purchased the medical practice at White House after Dr Marriott had died in 1948.
There were then around 3,000 patients and Anthony used the car for all his home visits. It was fitted with all-weather tyres, as the roads and lanes would be in poor condition and there were many farm tracks to negotiate. His patients lived all over the area, including Saxmundham and Halesworth, Bramfield and other villages and outlying farms. He had to purchase an Ordnance Survey map to discover where all the properties were located. He was extremely busy, with surgeries in the evenings. Phyllis took over managing the dispensary.
Dr Forster at Dunwich, where he held a surgery.
White House had a large garden including a sunken area and a kitchen garden. This was managed first by a Mr Barber, with his wife Eva helping in the house. Also employed was Frank Warnes. Dr Forster’s step-son Christopher remembers a very happy family life in the house and he had a particularly good relationship with Frank, who took over as gardener when Mr Barber retired. Frank had served in the Suffolk Regiment during WWII and was a POW for four years in the notorious Changi camp, working on the Burma Railway. During training in Crewe he had met a girl who he vowed he would return to should he survive the war, also that he would devote his life to Christ.
He married Edith, she worked in the house, he in the garden and he spent many years travelling around the Yoxford area preaching as a Methodist Minister. Having had polio he used a bicycle, then a motorcycle, lastly a three-wheeler car.
Dr Forster rebuilt Pinns Cottage in Brook Street for Frank and his family.
Pinns cottage.
Dr Forster died 16th February 1973 in Yoxford, leaving effects of £79,142.
There have been many changes at White House since then. It was sold in 1975, divided into two properties and houses have been built on the sites of the garage, the dispensary and the sunken garden.
Christopher Banham, Dr Forster’s step-son, who refers to him as ‘Doc’, inherited his Alvis motor car. Christopher, a retired engineer, has a long-standing passion for restoring vintage cars and keeps it in good condition, driving it occasionally.
Frank and Edith retired to Kesgrave, where they lived in very comfortable sheltered housing.
Frank Warnes on his 90th birthday.
(See Memories – Frank Warnes for Frank’s very comprehensive memoirs. Compiled in 1985, it was edited and images added in January 2024.)