Lieutenant-Colonel William Lachlan Forbes was born in August 1859, the third son of General Sir John Forbes, G.C.B., and educated at Clifton. Originally gazetted as a 2nd Lieutenant into the 106th Foot, he transferred to the 7th Foot in March 1879 and was present at the Defence of Kandahar and in the Battle of 1.9.1880 when acting as Orderly to Colonel Daubeny. Advanced to Lieutenant in May 1883 and to Captain in June 1887, he next witnessed active service in the Burma operations of 1886-89, when attached as an Assistant to the Brigade Commissariat Officer. Placed on Half-Pay, Forbes was latterly Adjutant of the 1st Volunteer Battalion, Gordon Highlanders and transferred to the Reserve of Officers in 1898. The advent of hostilities in South Africa found him back in harness with the Imperial Light Horse and he was severely wounded at the Battle of Elandslaagte during the Natal operations of 1899. He finished the War as a Major employed in the Remount Department. Forbes was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Fusiliers, Territorial Force until May 1915, gaining the British War Medal. Onetime J.P. for Aberdeenshire, he died in the 1930s.