Talk:John Forrest

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An anonymous editor changed "Sir John Forrest" to "Lord Forrest of Bunbury" at the very start of the article. I have reverted it. For most of his life John Forrest was known as "John Forrest" or "Sir John", and he is still referred to exclusively by these names in Western Australia where he is a household name. Very few people know him as "Lord Forrest", and so I believe that it is not appropriate to introduce him as such here. "Sir John Forrest, later Lord Forrest of Bunbury" is a reasonable compromise. This is consistent with Wikipedia:Naming conventions (names and titles).

Drew Devereux 00:12, 3 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Forrest on the box

Tonight's episode of Dynasties is about the Forrest family. It screens at 8pm tonight on ABC TV. See [1]. Snottygobble | Talk 00:02, 28 November 2005 (UTC) ABC Radio have been unashamedly plugging itvcxlor 03:16, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Important correction

The creation of a Peerage in the Peerage of the United Kingdom does not occur when an announcement is made to the subject, or when the announcement is made to the press. It only occurs when the Letters Patent are issued. In the case of Sir John Forrest, no letters patent were issued before his death. The Complete Peerage (the standard reference work) does not include Forrest in Volume XIII of Peerage creations 1901-1939. As W.D. Rubinstein remarks in "The Biographical Dictionary of Life Peers" (St Martin's Press, 1991) at page 368:

"Sir John Forrest .. was granted a hereditary peerage by the Lloyd George government, the first Australian to receive a peerage. Forrest died on the trip from Perth to England. Although he is referred to as 'Lord Forrest' in Who Was Who, 1916-1928, his peerage is not mentioned or included in Burke's Peerage, The New Extinct Peerage, the Complete Peerage, or any other standard reference work on the subject."

See also my recent article on John Davies who also died before receiving his peerage. Sir John Forrest was never a peer and his article is incorrect if it says that he is. David | Talk 00:56, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

* Crowley (2000) states that Forrest was told he had been raised to the British peerage on 6 February 1918. He didn't die until the following September. The absense of a mention in Burke's Peerage is hardly reason for overturning what is universally accepted as fact, and smacks of original research. Find me a reference that refutes that Forrest was a peer. Snottygobble | Talk 01:14, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Whether someone was a peer is a matter of law, not of opinion. If the law says that a person only becomes a peer when letters patent are issued, and if no letters patent were issued for Forrest, then he wasn't a peer and the article needs to be moved to John Forrest (explorer and politician). Adam 01:32, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

• Quite right. I've already apologised to David for my immediate reaction, and started correcting the article. Since John Forrest (Australian politician) is itself ambiguous, I think it is time we claimed John Forrest for this article. Snottygobble | Talk 01:38, 21 December 2005 (UTC)