1 3rd March, 1919 MUNICIPAL TECHICAL INSTITUTE, BELFAST The late Captain Fras. C. FORTH. Tribute from the Members of the Staff of the
Municipal Technical Institute. A meeting of the Members of the Staff of the Municipal
Technical Institute was held on Monday evening the 3rd inat., to
testify to their sorrow at the death of the late Principal,
Captain Forth, and to express their sympathy with the Members of
the bereaved family. The chair was taken by Professor Earls, B.A. Vice-
Principal of the Institute. There was a very full attendance of Members of the Staff.
Letters of apology from Members who were unavoidably unable to be
present were read by Mr. H. H. Dunlop, Registrar. Professor Earls in announcing the object of the meeting
stated that there had been held in the past many meetings of the
Staff, and on at least one other occasion a meeting of a somewhat
similar character - on the occasion of the death of the late
Sir Jas. Henderson, the first Chairman of the Library and Technical
Inatruction Committee. But no meeeting had ever before been held
to mark an event which had so intimately and profoundly affected
the Staff and indeed the whole life of the Institute as had the
death of its first Principal Captain Fras. C. Forth, whose mind is
expressed in every room of this immense building and in every
feature of its complex and afficient organisation. The following Resolution was submitted to the Meeting -
RESOLVED That we the Members of the Permanent Staff and
the Occasional Teachers of the Municipal Technical Institute,
Belfast, in meeting assembled, place on record our deep regret and
sorrow at the death of Captain F. C. Forth, the late Principal of
this Institute. Since the inception of the Technical Instruction Scheme
in Belfast more than eighteen years ago he has unaparingly devoted -1- 2 his outsanding powers of organisation, his wide knowledge
of educational affairs and his brilliant mental gifts to the
planning, erecting, equipping and organising the great
Institute which will always be his chief and most fitting
monument. We also wish to express our admiration for, and
appreciation of, the impartiality, justice and consideration
which he always evinced in his dealings with the Staff. We respectfully extend our most sincere sympathy
to his widow and family in the great bereavement they have
sustained. In proposing the Resolution Mr. Dawson, Headmaster
of the School of Art, referred to his association with Captain
Forth from the very beginning of the work of the Institute.
He spoke of the numerous and manifold difficulties which had
to be overcome in the early stages of the develpoment of the
scheme of technical instruction and of the great pleasure it
had been to Captain Forth to see the work develop and prosper.
He also referred feelingly to the great loss that had been
sustained by Captain Forth's family. Mr. Joe Boyce in seconding the Resolution said
that he had been on eof the first teachers to be engaged on the
Occasional Teaching Staff of the Municipal Technical Institute,
and he testified to the great loss which education in Belfast
and throughout Ireland had sustained by Captain Forth's death.
He also referred Captain Forth to those who were privileged to be
associated with him in the great work of the Technical Institute. The following also paid tributes of respect to the
memory of the late Principal - Mesare W. Davidson, J. H. Cox,
G. Gayton, J. Johnston and R. T. Hewitt. The Resolution was passed in silence the members
standing. After which the meeting concluded.