Herbert Forster was born in Moore on 23 September 1896. His parents were William (a farm bailiff) and Mary. The family lived in a cottage, probably a tied cottage, in Post Office Row. Herbert had four siblings, Eva, Fred b1892, Walter b1894 and Wilfred b1899. In 1911, Herbert was an office boy, though we don’t know where he worked.
There is not much detail about his military service and it is somewhat confusing, but Herbert may well have enlisted with the Cheshire Regiment and later transferred to the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, service number 265861.
Wilfred had joined the East Lancashire Regiment, but was sadly killed on 21 March 1918. There is no record of the other two brothers having joined the forces, which seems strange.
After the war, Herbert returned to Moore. In 1924 he married Freda Hughes and they had a son, Roy, born on 6 October 1928. The 1939 Register suggests they had another child, but no more details have been found. By this time, Herbert was a canal maintenance worker on the Ship Canal.
He died in 1967, aged 70 years.