Archibald Forbes may be the most-decorated war correspondent to have ever lived. From the Russian Order of St Stanislaus to the Prussian Iron Cross via awards for services in Afghanistan, the litany of medals Forbes accumulated testifies to his prolific journalistic record and the wide geographic span of his reporting.
Conflicts covered: Zulu War, Franco-Prussian War, and many others
Died: 17 April 1900, London
‘NOT TOO MODEST’
Forbes was the son of a Presbyterian minister, born in Morayshire, Scotland, in 1838. There were two conventional paths that a young man of his standing could follow: the Army or the Church.
After watching a series of lectures by pioneering war correspondent William Howard Russell – the journalist who brought the events of the Crimean War home in graphic detail to the British public – Forbes eschewed his father’s calling and, in 1859, joined the Royal Dragoons.
Excavating the CA archive: Monasteries of the high medieval period – Part 2