Charles Farrar Forster (29 February 1848 – 28 August 1894) was curate of the parish of Lockwood near Huddersfield, vicar of St Andrew's Church in Huddersfield, and the first vicar of the Church of St Michael and All Angels, Beckwithshaw.
In spite of suffering severe pain due to heart disease during his working years, he was known for his dedication to parochial work and for the large congregations who came to hear his sermons. For all his bodily fragility he was notable for his personal charisma, causing various newspapers to remark upon the numerous friends among his past and recent parishioners and among his fellow clergymen who formed part of his life and who attended his funeral and memorial services.
Life
Ancestors
Charles' paternal grandfather Daniel Forster, an inspector of weights, was born in Otley, West Yorkshire in 1776, and died in 1844. He was buried on 30 December 1844 in the same town. His wife Bella, a school mistress and Charles' grandmother, was baptised in Otley in 1796, and died aged 78 in 1866 in Otley.
Their seventh child was Henry Highmore Forster, Charles' father, who was born on 14 October 1821 in Otley and baptised on 11 August 1823 at All Saints Church, Otley. In 1841 at the age of 15, Henry was a grocer, as was his older brother. Henry died in Burmantofts aged 48 on 14 March 1869. Charles' mother was Martha Ann Farrar, who was born in 1825 in Halifax, West Yorkshire and died in Guisborough in North Yorkshire in 1897 aged 72. Henry and Martha married in 1846 in Halifax and had six children, of which Charles was the eldest. One of Charles' brothers was Edward Eustace Forster (1849-1916), chairman and managing director of printers Knight & Forster Ltd., of Leeds.
Charles and his wife
Charles Farrar Forster was born on 29 February 1848 in Knaresborough. On 6 October 1880, in Lockwood parish church, he married Mary Priestley, who was born in 1858 in Lockwood and was the eldest daughter of James Priestley, JP. In honour of this marriage, 438 workers at B. Vickerman & Son, a woollen mill in Huddersfield, were given a day out by special train from Berry Brow to Southport.
The 1891 Census shows them living at Pannal vicarage with one servant: Ellen Tupper, aged 46, from Wiltshire. He is aged 43, Mary is 33, and he is described as a clerk in holy orders.
Charles had a weak heart. In July 1894, just before evening service at Beckwithshaw he had a "bad attack" in the church, and the service was postponed. With some difficulty his parishioners carried him to the vicarage and called for medical aid. He was too ill to work, and was taken to Bournemouth for a rest and the sea air in the hope of improving his health.
He died in Bournemouth on the morning of Wednesday 28 August 1894, leaving his wife a widow with no children. His funeral at 3pm at Beckwithshaw Church on 1 September 1894 was brief: he was buried just half an hour later at 3.30pm at Harlow Hill Cemetery, Harrogate.
At Armitage Bridge, West Yorkshire on 30 September 1902 at the age of 44, Mary Forster née Priestley took a second husband, a widower who had been married twice before: Sir Thomas Brooke, baronet (31 May 1830 – 16 July 1908), of Armitage Bridge House, near Huddersfield, a Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace. Mary died on 12 March 1938, aged 80.
Work
Forster studied at St Bees Theological College. In 1873 or 1875 he was ordained deacon at Ripon. From 1873 or 1875 to 1878 he served as curate of Lockwood parish near Huddersfield. In 1877 he was ordained priest. When T.B. Bensted died in 1878 he resigned his first curacy at Lockwood, and from 1878 to 1880 served as curate or vicar at St. Mary the Virgin, Deane, Bolton le Moors in Lancashire.