Retired Fife farmer Thomas Douglas “Binks” Forster has died at St Andrews Memorial Hospital at the age of 93.
He was born in September 1917 in Rangoon and educated at Seafield House, Broughty Ferry, and Merchiston Castle, Edinburgh. He took an apprenticeship at retailer Harvey Nicolls with a view to joining the family business in Dundee.
Binks, as he was always known, instead joined the Assam Frontier Tea Company as a planter and, aged 21, sailed to India in 1938.
He joined the Assam Valley Light Horse TA and made many friends.
On the outbreak of war he joined the Royal Artillery 28th Field Regiment and as part of the 5th Indian Division, fought in Eritrea, Abyssinia, Iraq, Palestine and Cyprus.
Posted to north Africa, he met his lifelong friend Maurice Goddard.
On June 6, 1942 he was captured and spent 15 months in prisoner-of-war camps in Italy.EscapeHe escaped from Fontenelatto, near Parma, in September 1943 and after an 11-week trek made it to the allied lines at Cassino.
He and Maurice rejoined their regiment in Burma and he fought the Japanese at the battle of Kohima.
In 1946 he married Muriel Wallace, a farmer’s daughter from Peacehill, Wormit, and set sail for India.
After partition in 1947 they returned to the farm where he joined forces with Muriel’s father Gordon Wallace.
He played rugby for London Scottish and was a keen runner, but above all he loved golf.
A member of Scotscraig Club, Tayport, he was elected a member of the R&A for 55 years.
He was a founder member of North East Fife Rotary Club, an elder of the Church of Scotland since 1953 and a founder member of the Locusts Golf Society.
He is survived by his wife Muriel, son Peter, daughter Dorothy, his grandchildren and his great grandchildren.