Rev. David Forsyth
Rank: 2nd Lieutenant
Date of Death: 17/06/1915
Age: 28
Regiment/Service: Highland Light Infantry (7th Bn.)
Cemetery: Rutherglen Cemetery
Additional information: Son of William and Mary Forsyth of Monaruadh, Lochbrae Drive, Burnside, Rutherglen.
Rutherglen Lore information: Son of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Forsyth, 3 Blairbeth Terrace (Burnside House).
Soldier’s Effects information: Mother Mrs. Mary Forsyth.
Glasgow University information: David Forsyth was born on the 27th October 1886 in Govanhill, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, son of William and Mary Forsyth of Monaruadh, Lochbrae Drive, Burnside, Rutherglen, Lanarkshire. David went to Fettes College in Edinburgh in 1899 at the age of 12 before studying at the University of Glasgow between 1909-1912.
He was a brilliant Divinity student, who won prizes in Hebrew, Church History, Arabic, Aramaic, Divinity and Biblical Criticism, culminating in winning the MacFarlan and Cook Testimonial Prize in his final year of study in 1912. This prize was founded in 1847 in memory of Duncan MacFarlan.
David was appointed Assistant in Hebrew at the University of Glasgow in 1914, however, at the outbreak of war, he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps as a Private and was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in the 7th Bn. (Blythswood Battalion) Highland Light Infantry on the 28th May 1915.
David Forsyth died on the 17th June 1915, aged 28.
1891 census information:
Address: Rosebank Cottage, Rutherglen.
Father: William (29) teacher, born about 1862 in Muirkirk, Ayrshire
Mother: Mary (30) born about 1861 in Glasgow.
Self: David (4) born about 1887 in Govanhill.
Sister: Christina M (2) born about 1889 in Rutherglen.
1901 census information:
David is a pupil at Fettes College, Edinburgh.
1911 census information:
The family are living in Rutherglen. The family comprises William 49, Mary 50, David 24 and Christina 22.
Newspaper transcript – The Rev. David Forsyth, B.A., Oxon, B.D., died at his father’s residence, Blairbeth Road, Rutherglen, yesterday. He was assistant to the Professor of Hebrew in Glasgow University, when he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps, who have been stationed in Dunfermline. It was there that he contracted his fatal illness in the form of pneumonia.
Newspaper transcript – A Scotch Professor. The Church of Scotland has also lost one of its ministers in the Rev. David Forsyth, who was a scholar at Queen’s College, Oxford. He resigned the Assistant Professorship of Hebrew in Glasgow University to become a private in the R.A.M.C., and died before he got to the front, just after being given a commission in the Highland Light Infantry.
Also commemorated on the memorial at Stonelaw High School, Rutherglen, Rutherglen Old Parish Church, Glasgow University, Queen’s College, Oxford, Cathkin Braes Golf Club, Rutherglen. and on the family headstone in Rutherglen Cemetery.
