Commonwealth Forestry Review

OBITUARIES
Major F. V. Webster, M.C. (1901-1969)
FREDERICK VERNON WEBSTER was born at Mussorie in India, in 1901 where his father
was serving in the army. After schooling in India he entered the Forestry College at
Dehra Dun and on completion of his forestry training joined the Burma Forest Service
in 1926. The outbreak of the war found hiln in northern Burnla and he made his way
to India and volunteered for military service. His experience of the people and forests
of Burma made him an invaluable member of "Z" force operating behind the Japanese
lines and it was for his part in these operations that he was awarded the M.C. After
the war he returned to Burma for a short while but changed conditions led him to seek
employnlent elsewhere and in August 1948 he joined the North Borneo Forest Depart­
Olent. He stayed in North Borneo for the remainder of his working life retiring to
England in August 1960. Monty or Web as he was known to his friends was a keen
and in his younger days skilled sportsman. His particular love was cricket, which
he continued to play until shortly before his retirement and which he followed with
enthusiasm whenever possible.
Shortly after retiring he suffered from a severe coronary thrombosis and was forced
to lead a quiet life in retirement at Westfield in Sussex. In 1963 he married Dorothy
Mayor, who survives hinl and to whom we extend our deepest sympathy.
rrhomas Valentine Dent (1909-1970)
WE REGRET to announce the death ofT. V. Dent, l.F.S.(Retd.) who died while attending
a council meeting of the Yorkshire Naturalists' trust at York University on 11 th
April 1970, exactly a week after his retirenlent from the services of the Forestry
COllll11ission.
The youngest officer to join the Indian Forest Service, Dent canle to India in October
1929 and spent his first five years as a junior officer in North Bengal and in the Sunderbans
and was, incidentally, instrumental in routing a group of determined rhino
poachers as well as a rogue rhino, at Jaldapara. Soon after, he became the Khedda
Officer and operated extensively in the Chittagong forests which were literally the
home of wild elephants. Subsequent two years' arduous life as the Divisional Forest
Officer, Chittagong Hill Tracts nearly cost him his life, afflicted as he was by the ITIuch
dreaded Black Water Fever, but through the dedicated nursing of Frank Dent he
survived. Next, he spent a couple of years as an Assistant Silviculturist at Dehra Dun
(1940-42) and during the brief span, managed to publish an important SiIvicultural
bulletin. He was a competent field botanist and a complete naturalist.
With the evacuation of the British froln Burma he was recalled to Chittagong
to shoulder the onerous task of the supply of colossal quantities of timber to the
ArnlY at the front line that the Division became. A few months before India gained
independence, he went to England on leave for a well-earned rest, little apprehending
that he was leaving this country for good! Subsequently, he was absorbed in the
Service of the U.K., Forestry Commission wherefrom he had retired only on 4th
April, 1970.
Dent had an enviable iron constitution; and about physical hardships he could never
care less. He was a good sportsnlan, and his shooting was accurate. His bag included
several tigers and panthers. Yet his rugged exterior concealed a very tender heart that
was incapable of being rude. He was considerate to a fault and it was a common sight
in the early hours of the morning, to see Dent dashing in a jeep down the strand with
a load of Foresters bound for the embarkation point, some eight miles from Chittagong,
for their voyage to Cox's Bazar-on the country's eastern border, to report for
duty. But for his help the poor staff would have had to trudge the weary miles to the
wharf as cabs were not to be had for love or money in war time.
He had recently informed his old colleagues about his desire to visit North Bengal,
filled as it was for him with nostalgic memories, on his way to Australia where his
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