John Samuel Forrest, 20 August 1907 - 11 November 1992

Abstract

John Forrest’s name will always be associated with electrical insulation and transmission lines at high voltages, for he started his professional life in the earliest days of the British Grid system which interconnected our city power stations in the late 1920s. I cannot describe his life’s scientific work in words better than those I wrote when I submitted - with Dr L. Rotherham - his name to the Royal Society for election to the Fellowship in 1964: ‘Distinguished for his work on electrical power transmission at high voltages. He played an active part in the development of the 132 kV, 275 kV and 400 kV National Grid. His special study of electrical insulation has led to a better understanding of the mechanism of breakdown and thus to improved designs of high-voltage insulators.’ Immediately after College he began this work at a power station in Glasgow, then at one in London, and finally at Leatherhead; at his retirement in 1973 the Central Electricity Generating Board’s Research Laboratory (CERL) at Leatherhead, of which he was the Director, numbered some 800 staff and was known by national electricity generating authorities throughout the world. Its development was his life’s work of which he could be justifiably proud. After retirement he visited the University of Strathclyde many times as a visiting professor, helping students and giving many lectures, but he did not undertake any active research there, continuing to live in his London home. Sadly he lost his first wife, Ivy, in 1976. He was greatly helped by her cousin Joan, whom he married in 1985, and enjoyed moderate health till his death in 1992. He leaves a son, John Richard, daughter-in-law Jane, and three grand-children, Nicholas, Katie and Alexander. He has left many biographical notes in the booklet provided by the Royal Society to new Fellows on their election and has added extensively to the 1966 account, so that the task of his biographer has been greatly eased; correspondence with many of his former staff has added to our knowledge of his contribution to science and of the affection in which he was held.