Remembering farming entrepreneur Robert (Robin) Jack Forrest

Robert, or Robin as he was known to all, was born on January 4, 1939, in the farmhouse at Preston, to his parents Bob and Neill. He was the middle of three siblings, between his older sister Judy and his younger brother Barclay.

He began his school days at Preston School in 1944 until 1948 at the age of nine, when he moved to Loretto School in Musselburgh.

At home, Robin and his sister Judy always had ponies and both enjoyed hunting with Berwickshire Hunt.

He left school in 1955 at the age of 16, being a student at Manor Hill before going on to the East of Scotland College of Agriculture in Edinburgh.

An active member of Ednam Young Farmers, he enjoyed all activities and particularly stock judging. Robin was also a member of Berwick Motor Club, trying his hand at local rally driving with Aitken Young and even co-driving for Jim Clark.

It was at a Young Farmers’ dance that he encountered his wife-to-be. Robin met Jennifer McCreath, a grain merchant’s daughter from Berwick, and not long after they were married in Berwick Parish Church on one of the worst winters days in history, on January 31, 1963. Many of the guests set off in tractors because of the snow and their honeymoon continued by tractor!

Stuartslaw

They set up home at Stuartslaw and not long after, sons Rob and Nigel and daughter Trish were born. Stuartslaw was home to the couple until 1970 when they moved to Preston which they had purchased in 1968, having been sitting tenants since 1924.

Robin farmed with his brother Barclay at Preston, Craigswalls and Stuartslaw until the mid 1970s when the brothers split the business. Robin took on Preston, along with the land on a lease at Langton. They sold off the dairy in 1970 to concentrate on suckler cows and breeding ewes.

The 650 commercial ewes were all Half-breds before changing to the more prolific Scotch Mule with all progeny finished either through FMC or the local markets. Over the years, the farm grew to 1000 ewes and 200 cows pre-foot and mouth, which compares to today’s livestock based on 400 Simmental suckler cows. Robin also ran flocks of pedigree Border Leicesters and Oxford Downs, selling tups at the Kelso Ram Sales.

The livestock ran in conjunction with a large arable enterprise comprising barley, wheat, oats, swedes, potatoes and sugar beet – until the plant in Cupar closed. Thereafter, Robin was an early pioneer of oilseed rape.

One of his most innovative projects was setting up Ewesplit, with his late friend and dentist Adam Thomson. This was essentially developing a metal split, to fit into the ewe’s mouth to enable them to keep eating, prevent a broken mouth, and lengthen their useful life.

A keen curler, Robin was a member of Duns Curling Club and a shareholder at Border Ice Rink in Kelso.

He was a good shot and enjoyed hosting shoots at Preston and at Whitrig, and the many reciprocal shoots around the country.

Being a Berwickshire man, he was involved in both the local NFU and Duns Show being a longtime committee member, chairman and president.

Royal Highland Show

Duns Show was the great stepping stone for his introduction onto the board of The Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland. The Royal Highland Show played a great part in his life, Robin having been chief steward of car parks. Robin was instrumental and passionate in the creation of the Food Hall. He then rose up through the ranks to become honorary treasurer (1985-1988), elected chairman in 1988-1989 and honorary secretary (1991-1995).

Representing the RHS on the Royal Agricultural Societies of The Commonwealth for a number of years enabled Robin and Jen to travel to other parts of the world, such as Kenya, Trinidad and Tobago, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Jamaica. It was while in Canada that he came back and suggested growing lentils at home. It had never been done before in the UK, but he was right – they grew well at Preston.

On retiring from the board, along with fellow directors, the four Johns – Wight, Stewart, McMinn, Aitchison and their wives – they formed the CRAFT Club. Nothing to do with crafting but standing for ‘Can’t Remember an Effing Thing’. His final active involvement with the Highland Show was as a Borders area vice-president in 2010.

Simmental cattle

Robin was also renowned for breeding pedigree Simmental cattle. His initial purchase of six heifers as foundation females for the Stuartslaw herd were from the first importation into the UK from Germany in 1970. After the first importation, he was involved in buying missions in France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. He was also on the first buying mission of Romagnola cattle from Italy into the UK.

It was Simmental cattle where his real passion lay and he successfully sold bulls at the Perth Bull Sales. His purchase of Glenturk Grenadier was a pivotal moment in the success of the herd and there were also many triumphs in the show rings from the Swiss cow Aelplerin and her progeny Stuartslaw Grace, Stuartslaw Jenny and Stuartslaw Melody winning many championships all over the country.

Such was the success of the Stuartslaw herd that Robin exported pedigree cattle to New Zealand and Canada from 1971-1975.

He was elected to the British Simmental Cattle Society council in 1973 and was appointed president in 1983-1984 which involved travelling and meeting people all over the country and further afield, including the World Congress in Australia.

His judging skills were much in demand too and he selected the winners for cattle and sheep classes, breeds and inter-breeds all over the UK and Ireland, including all the Royal Shows and Perth Bull Sales. One of his memorable events, was judging the Royal Highland Show beef cattle inter-breed competition in the old cattle lines, due to torrential rain. He also judged in New Zealand, Germany and Canada.

Business outwith farming

Away from farming, Robin was involved in several other businesses. He and his brother Barclay owned White and Co, the butcher’s shop in Chirnside. Along with Stair Brown and Archie Stewart, they also set up an agri chemical business, Stair Brown Ltd.

He was a director of South East Oils, an oil distribution company based at St Boswells of which he became chairman, before selling out to Scottish Oils. As part of South East Oils, they set up Warmfill, a pioneering company erecting solar panels on roofs for hot water heating. He was the guinea pig and put them on the roof at Preston which, 40 years later, is still going strong.

He also diversified his off-farm interests into hotel management, when he and his friend Bart Hair bought the Buccleuch Arms in St Boswells. In the end, they were not convinced that this was the way to make money, perhaps even the opposite!

Robin was also a director of SAC (1996-2004) and vice-chairman of SAC (2001-2004), and he was chairman of the Royal Scottish Agricultural Benevolent Institute, a role that he was particularly passionate about and enjoyed working with the many volunteers raising money for the cause.

He and Jen helped staff the busy helpline, during the foot-and-mouth crisis in 2001.

He was also vice-chairman of the SSPCA.

Robin was particularly keen on his community role as chairman of Berwickshire Recreation Education Sports Trust, when successfully preventing the closure of Duns swimming pool. As a director of Scottish Borders Enterprise, he actively promoted the future and support to the rural sector.

Following in his late father’s footsteps, Robin was a well-known and respected third-generation agricultural valuer and was involved with valuations and arbitrations all over the south of Scotland and beyond.

He was a member of The Secretary of State Panel of Agricultural Arbiters and he was on the Scottish Executive EU Agricultural Subsidies Appeals Panel from 2005-2010.

His last valuation work was in procuring the land for the re-opening of the Borders Railway following the Beechings Closures in 1969.

A past-president of the South of Scotland and Border Valuers Association and The Scottish Agricultural Arbiters’ and Valuers Association (1993-1994), this tradition continues with son Rob being the fourth generation working in agricultural valuation.

He was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Agricultural Societies in 1992, an OBE for services to agriculture in Berwickshire in 1995, and made a deputy lieutenant of Berwickshire in 1997, a role he was very honoured to uphold.

It wasn’t all work though – great holidays were taken, in the UK, throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, South America, and Vietnam.

He was an elder of the Church of Scotland for 53 years, firstly at Edrom and then Bonkyl Church, after he moved to Preston.

Retirement

He and Jen built a house at Scotston Park, just outside Duns and moved there to enjoy their retirement in 1999 – although, he did like to keep his hand in on the farm when needed. He continued with valuation work for a few more years.

He played golf at Duns which was 500m from the house at Scotston Park and with the Wednesday Wanderers at The Roxburghe for many years. Latterly, he enjoyed playing at Goswick.

His loved his Bentley, which he took over from his father having been previously used as his farm vehicle. Robin had it done up and gleaming, ready for anything, although it didn’t always perform and was known to travel home with the AA.

Robin was opinionated. Everyone knew where they stood. He had a few distinct traits and sayings. One was timekeeping, always looking at his watch – he hated people being late.

But, above all, Robin was a family man and was proud that farming continues at Preston with grandson Bob at the helm. He is survived by Jen, his wife of more than 61 years and family, Rob and his wife, Lucy; Nigel and Henry, Fife; Trish and

Jerry, Cheshire; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.