Keith Leslie Forster was born on 16 June 1943 in Strood, Kent but he didn’t let his being born in England hold him back. He was a mainstay of Rosyth Civil Service when I first met him on the hockey field and we also crossed swords when I was a guest player for Army HQ Scotland against a Royal Navy side in Rosyth. A few years later in 1975 we found ourselves on the same side when I joined Dunfermline Carnegie. Work took me to Aberdeen in 1990 but Keith played on with Carnegie, and we joined forces again in 2002 when Doug Morrice put together a side to represent Scotland in the third European Superveterans Tournament in Paris.
Neither Keith nor I was qualified as an Over 60 player, but Doug assured us that with our beards and lack of hair up top we looked old enough, so the seeds of Scottish Thistles were sown. Virtually the same squad travelled to Lille the next year, calling ourselves Scotland LX, but it was the following year when the first Scottish Thistles named team took the field at the Luc Ronchin tournament in Lille, with Keith the main organiser. I believe that I came up with the name but it was Keith who took the decision to enter us as Scottish Thistles.
Doug had been more keen on international hockey but Keith was a firm believer in involving everyone in the game, and it was he who introduced the rule that players for Scottish Thistles, whatever their playing ability, were entitled to equal pitch time. That rule has been modified somewhat over the years and has not always been applied, but the ethos was and is to give everyone the opportunity to continue to play through their ‘declining years’. Highlights of Scottish Thistles away trips in that era were regular trips to Hellevoetsluis, Lille and Oss, all ably marshalled by Keith.
Keith took over from Doug Morrice as Secretary/Treasurer of the Scottish Veterans LX Hockey Club when it was officially constituted in March 2005, by which time it had already been granted the official right by Scottish Hockey to form teams to represent Scotland at Over 60 and, soon, Over 65. The next few years saw the rapid growth of the club, ably steered by Keith who virtually ran the club, organising our participation in the increasing number of major international events for both Scotland and Scottish Thistles, and playing in them all. It became clear that one person could not cope with the burden of all the work involved, and Keith was replaced by Peter Monaghan as Treasurer and by me as Secretary at the AGM in March 2008, though Keith continued to work on the organisation of Scotland’s Over 60 and Over 65 entries In the European Championship in Spain later the same month.
His last tournament for Scottish Thistles was in June 2010 in Boom. Belgium, where Keith was a member of the Great Grand Masters (Over 65) Scottish Thistles team which achieved third place. His health began to suffer and a serious heart problem meant that he no longer felt able to play. That didn’t separate him from hockey, and for many years he continued to organise and coach in schools in the Dunfermline area as well as coaching Dunfermline Carnegie teams. He was awarded the Scottish Hockey Thistle award in 2010 for services to youth hockey, and was known within the club as ‘Mr Hockey’.
Keith suffered a stroke and bleed on the brain at the end of April 2026 and was taken to hospital, where he passed away. His funeral will be held at Dunfermline Crematorium on Tuesday 19 May at 10:45.
Ian Downie
