The son of a former equerry to Queen Victoria , Forrest was born in France, his family leaving the country in 1830 because of the start of the revolution .
He was taken to Jamaica where his father , who sired 10 children , had sugar plantations.
After military training back in England, achieving the rank of captain, Haughton Forrest , went to Brazil for a short time and then took up land in Tasmania in 1876 .
There he held several posts including Bailiff of Crown Lands, Inspector of Nuisances and Superintendent of Police.
Without any apparent training, he then devoted himself to fulltime painting and over 70 years produced more than 3000 in various formats and media , many depicting ships in dramatic settings.
In 1899 his views of Mount Wellington and Hobart , based on photos by John Watt Beattie, were chosen to be the first set of pictorial stamps, the fourpenny , from the Dictionary of Australian Biography, shown below.
