ARCHIBALD FORBES.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1256, 23 January 1883, Page 2

ARCHIBALD FORBES.

I As this celebrated war correspondent is to • deliver his opening lecture in Parnell and Buylan’s Hall next Monday, the following sketch of his romantic career will be found interesting:— The brilliant journalist is the son of the Rev. Louis Forbes, D.D., a Presbyterian minister. After a short school career he studied for a term at the Aberdeen University ; but the sudden death of his father, who dropped dead in the pulpit, imposed upon him, as one of nine children slenderly provided for, the neceasity for commencing the battle of life without further preparation. Repairing to Edinburgh, the youngster began the campaign by spending ali his money and arranging an elopement with a young lady who had fired his inflammable fancy. The organising faculty which Forbes subsequently exhibited must at this epoch have been undeveloped, for the girl’s father out-manoeu-vred the lover, waylaid the runaways as they were driving off in » gig, and gave the guy Lothario an introduction to the nearest ditch. In 1859, on attaining his majority, he came into a slender patrimony of £5OO. With this capital he started to join a cousin in Canada, but (his susceptibility to the fair sex not having been quenched by the ditch episode) lie did not carry out his intention ; and on returning to England he enlisted in the Royal Dragoons. As a trooper, Forbes was quite as remarkable for the facility with which he plunged into scrapes as for the dexterity which he got out of them. ; One shilling and tourpence a day being an I income altogether inadequate for the expenses | of a dragoon, he bethought him of trying . whether the pen was truly “mightier than i the sword ” in a financial sense. “ House- [ hold Words” and the “Coruhill Magazine” I published articles by the soldier, and thence- ; forth his career began to definitely shape itj self. Invalided after five years of soldiering, j Forbes was speedily restored to health by ‘ non-military physicians, and, becoming a i casual writer for the “Morning Advertiser,” : thought to achieve a complete recovery by ■ becoming a married man. He is now a ! widower, and two charming young ladies in i London own a father who generally lives at [ the other extremities of the globe, having ; enjoyed but two years of his society during I eight. Miscellaneous journalistic work oc- ' cupied the future war correspondent some j time subsequent to his marriage. On the | outbreak ot the Franco-German war, Forbes ! suggested that in view of his military knowj ledge he would make a good war correspon- ■ dent. The late James Grant, then editor of I tiie “Morning Advertiser,” thought the comi bination of dragoon and journalist a strong ' point, and started him off on the career in | which he was destined to become famous. I Thenceforth, his adventures are mutters | within general knowledge. He received his “ baptism of fire” simultaneously with j the late Prince Imperial, at Saarbruck, on | August 2nd, 1870, Forbes being with i the Prussians. It was his destiny, : some eight years later, to be one of those ‘ who stood around the remains of the illi starred Prince in Zululand. Of the : special correspondent’s intermediate exploits i we need only give a skeleton, as he is filling i in the outline himself on the lecture platI form. He was present at the battles of Courcelles, Vionville, and Gruvelotte, wit1 nessed the disaster of Sedan, and next morning stood by when Napoleon surrendered to Bismarck. He was the first noncombatant to ride round Paris before its complete investment. Transferring his service to the “Daily News,” he represented that journal at the siege and surrender of Metz, where he was wounded in the leg. Returning with his wound unhealed to Paris, he was the first newspaper man to enter after the capitulation. How he outstripped all competitors in the transmission of his despatches is a good story, but too long to tell heie. The struggle between the Communists and the Versaillists was witnessed by Forbes. He was in the thick of it, and was even compelled to help in constructing barricades. After the restoration of peace in France, the institution and displacement of a Republic in Spain attracted him to the Peninsula. The Indian famine drew him, still representing the “ Daily News'’ to Hindustan. Returning home, after suffering from sunstroke, Forbes took another Spanish trip, this time accompanying the Alphonsist troops in pursuit of his former comrades the Carlists. Then again to India with the Prince of Wales. The disruption of Turkey had now commenced, and the great war correspondent was hurried to the scene on the first premonitory symptoms appearing in Servin. Attaching himself to the Russian arms he went through the campaigne which followed, on more than one occasion outstripjiiiig the army staff’ in the convenience of information from detached corps to the Emperor's headquarters. For personal intrepedity in rescuing Bussian wounded soldiers at Plevna, Forber

was decorated by the Cuav with the Order of St. Stanislaus, Cyprus and Zululand successively were visited, as the currents of events shifted the centre of European attention hither and thither : and since Ulundi the war correspondent has been taking rest —characteristically by travelling over the globe as a lecturer. But should fresh troubles arise out of the settlement of the Egyptian difficulty, or from jealousy amongst the great Continental Powers—and a European war is by no means impropable—it may be anticipated that Forbes will leap off the lecture platform, pack his portmanteau, and hurry home as quickly as the fastest mail steamer can carry him, to the consternation of Mr R. S. Smythe, his “much travelled manager, ”

Ever since he landed in Auckland, eight months ago, the “ King of the specials ” (as George Augustus Sala called him) has attractsee thebold rider and brilliant writer, and to ed fashonable and crowded audiences eager to hearfrom his own eloquent lips the story of his experiences as a war correspondent, and the recital of his reminiscences of the kings, princes, warriors and other illustrious persons whom he has met in the course of his remarkable career.