Roland Forster

(December 23, 1915 – 1995)

Charles Roland Forster was a UK fan from Northumberland active from 1937 – although he claimed to have never been truly active – and into the 1940s. He was a member of the British Fantasy Society.

In a profile in Futurian War Digest #26 he said of himself:

A sort of hanger-on around the outskirts of fandom and never truly 'active', I submit this brief biography under pressure from my good friend JMR. Born 1915, I've read fantasy since the days of the Boy's Magazine and Modern Boy. Still do, but no longer get quite the 'kick' out of it as in former days. Met the American mags in 1931 and got acquainted with fandom in 1937, since which time I've carried on correspondence with a few – very few – fellow fans, read a large number of fanmags, and periodically changed my ideas on everything from the definition of good science fiction to the possibility or otherwise of life after death. Am less interested in physical science than formerly, but more interested in vaguer subjects such as sociology, psychology and psychic research (including occultism). Unmarried. Decidedly introverted. Been in the RAF for two and a half years, cursing while at the same time, admitting that life could be a lot worse.

Called up to the Royal Air Force during the Second World War he was first posted to the Shetlands to the north of Scotland and then to Cranwell where he was an instructor at No. 1 RAF signals school (Arthur C. Clarke was at No. 2 at the same time). Forster was for a time stationed with Eric Frank Russell and David McIlwain so inevitably they formed an sf group.

In the August 1944 issue of Futurian War Digest he said via heavily-censored postcard that he was in Europe. It's unclear, not least because he couldn't say exactly, whether he had been involved in the D-Day landings or crossed the Channel soon after. He wondered 'if he is the first fan to set foot in Europe with the liberating armies'.

After the War he was present for the August 1945 fan meet-up in London, 'a get-together of near-conference proportions' according to Rob Hansen in Then, but he doesn't seem to have been in evidence thereafter.

Before the War he worked for HM Customs and Excise.

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Person

1915—1995

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