Sir Ewan Forbes

Sir Ewan Forbes, a white man with short dark hair, wears a suit and smiles at an older man. A woman stands with him.

"...a ghastly mistake. I was carelessly registered as a girl in the first place, but of course, that was forty years ago...the doctors in those days were mistaken, too."

– Sir Ewan Forbes

 From a young age, Sir Ewan Forbe was not interested in conforming to gender norms. Ewan was born into a noble family, and later in life gained the title of baronet. Throughout most of his childhood, Ewan avoided acting and dressing as Scottish society expected him to and was only seen in traditionally female clothing on special occasions.

After finishing his education at home to avoid a girl's boarding school, he was accepted to the University of Aberdeen as a medical student. During his time there, he continued wearing clothes that matched his gender without incident. In addition to a lack of resistance toward Ewan’s gender expression, there was a level of acceptance that is surprising to find in the 1930s. Ewan was not without friends or successes. He founded a dance company called “The Dancers of Don” with Isabella Mitchell – who would later become his wife – and was accomplished in many avenues, including the harp and public recitations. The latter of which he won contests in. Though his father had not supported his pursuit of a degree in medicine, Ewan was left with 1,300 acres of land and more than enough to cover his expenses after his death.

Life seemed to remain relatively simple for Ewan; he was able to obtain his degree in 1944 and was quick to be named Senior Casualty Officer, then become a general practitioner in Alford, Aberdeenshire. His success was not wholly in the professional field either. Soon after his placement as a general practitioner, he talked to the local sheriff and corrected the gender on his birth certificate, legally recognizing him as male. Only a short time after that, he was also able to marry Isabella Mitchell and even published in a local newspaper that people were now to refer to him as Ewan Forbes in replacement of his dead name. The announcement went shockingly well. Everyone seemed to accept this change without question, and Ewan was able to live his life as a good doctor in a small community and a good husband to his wife. It was only when his older brother died that trouble truly started for Ewan.

After his father had died, the baronet title had been passed down to Ewan’s older brother. Passing it along to Ewan is where things became more difficult. It seemed that Ewan’s cousin, John Forbes-Sempill, believed that the title and inheritance were owed to him, as at the time, women could not inherit what Ewan had. John then decided to take legal action to prove that Ewan's re-registration as a man was not legitimate and make sure the inheritance would be passed down to him instead. The courts kept quiet about the lawsuit to protect the family’s reputation throughout the three-year-long legal battle. Now, the records have been released to the public, and now an approximation of what happened is available.

Though it was true that allowing Ewan to have the inheritance if he had been assigned female at birth would not have been legal, the re-registration would have to be voided for that to be legally confirmed. The re-registration was only permitted if “the sex of a child was indeterminate at birth, and it was later discovered ... that an error had been made."

This is what Ewan claimed, and it leads to a possibility that is worth considering: the possibility that Ewan Forbes was intersex. This theory would also explain why twelve doctors saw him, and they came back with the verdict that evidence of Ewan’s gender was inconclusive. It would also make sense of Ewan’s explanation of his gender to the press:

"...a ghastly mistake. I was carelessly registered as a girl in the first place, but of course, that was forty years ago... the doctors in those days were mistaken, too... I have been sacrificed to prudery, and the horror which our parents had sex."

Regardless of the state of his genitals, the judge ruled in Ewan’s favour, letting him inherit what was rightfully his and allowing Ewan to live the rest of his life quietly with his wife.

Ewan lived a normal life as a doctor and husband and never really did much more than that. He was not an activist or an artist, and he wasn’t even an especially exceptional doctor. His life was not a very remarkable one, which makes his story so noteworthy. Ewan had a quiet life, and it is said that his patients and wife were wholly supportive of his gender. Even the press didn’t make too much of a fuss over it. Although partly because they were silenced during the trial, the fact is, before that point, he had been incredibly open with them, and no one seemed to mind.

He stayed as the doctor of his town, and while there were probably individual cases of conflict, there was never an incident large enough to be held on record. Ewan just lived as who he was, and the court case was the only large incident in his life. He was allowed to live peacefully with his wife, which the community often forgets about.

Not every queer person wants to change the world. Some just want to get by with quiet lives and make homes, friends, and family, but don’t need anything beyond that. It is important to remind people that having that life is entirely possible. A Scottish man managed it in the thirties, and it is possible now. While the world can seem a daunting creature, the people in it can be much easier to live with than it seems.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

Disclaimer: some of the sources may contain triggering material

Darrin Lythgoe. (2015, August 24). Ewan Forbes-Sempill (later Forbes), of Craigievar, 11th Baronet. Clan MacFarlane and Associated Clans Genealogy. https://www.clanmacfarlanegenealogy.info/genealogy/TNGWebsite/getperson.php?personID=I32097&tree=CC

The Editors of The Gazetteer for Scotland. (n.d.). Sir Ewan Forbes of Craigievar. https://www.scottish-places.info/people/famousfirst992.html

William Addams Reitwiesner. (n.d.). Ancestry of Ewan Forbes. http://www.wargs.com/noble/forbes.html