Full description

## 1908-10
Thomas Emerson Forster was born in Cramlington, Northumberland on the 3rd of January 1858. His father, George Baker Forster, had been President of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers from 1881 to 1884. His grandfather, Thomas Emerson Forster, had been President from 1866 to 1868. Forster was educated at Cambridge and rowed in the annual Cambridge-Oxford boat race.

Forster was the Director of many companies:
The Wallsend and Hebburn Coal Co Ltd
The Scremerston Coal Co Ltd
The Bolsover Colliery Co Ltd
The Blackwell Colliery Co Ltd
The Cowpen Coal Co Ltd

Forster was also a member of the Blyth Harbour Commission and was a consulting engineer to the firm of G. B. and T. E. Forster in Newcastle. He also wrote an account of the Hartley Pit Disaster in 1862 and wound up the Hartley Relief fund in 1909.

Forster was a student member of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers in 1876, was made an associate member in 1885, and then a full member in 1889. Between 1908 and 1910, Forster was President of the Institute.

Thomas Emerson Forster died on the 27th December 1933 and was buried in Watermillock Church. A memorial was held for him at St Nicholas’ Cathedral, Newcastle.

Further reading:
Transactions, Vol LXXXVI, p308
Transactions, Vol LXXXVII, p214