Archie Henry McClean Forbes

On 4 January 1919, the Newcastle Morning Herald reported that four Wallsend soccer players had the distinction of being awarded military honours. Archie (Archibald) Forbes was one of them. As reported in the Commonwealth Gazette, on “the night of 16th September, 1916, during a raid on the enemy trenches by a party of the 30th Battalion, 8th Infantry Brigade, Corporal FORBES, who was one of a Bombing party, entered the German trenches in the face of heavy grenade fire. He drove the enemy bombers back, killing at least two of them, and succeeded in taking one prisoner. Corporal FORBES, although wounded in three places, would not leave his post until ordered to do so.” Thankfully Archie’s wounds were not too severe. By the time the war ended he had been promoted from Lance Corporal to Lieutenant. He returned to Wallsend and married Maggie Malthouse in 1921. Archie Forbes died in Kotara, NSW, in 1947 at the age of 53.