Frederick Lindsay Forrester (Fred Forrester), MA (Hons), Dip.Ed., FEIS, taught English in Glasgow secondary schools from 1962 to 1965. Then he was appointed as a lecturer in English and General Studies at Coatbridge Technical College. In January 1967, he was successful in joining the staff of the Educational Institute of Scotland as an Assistant Secretary. He was promoted to Organising Secretary in 1983 and then to Depute General Secretary in 1993. For much of his time at the EIS, he was the servicing official for the Education Committee, under a string of distinguished elected conveners including Henry Philip of Edinburgh and James Thomson of Stirling.

He was deeply involved in the turbulent events of the 1980s and 1990s, as Michael Forsyth and Lord James Douglas-Hamilton were well aware. On his retiral from the EIS at the end of March 2000, Fred became a frequent contributor to the educational pages of "The Scotsman" and this continued until late 2007. He also worked as a consultant for the General Teaching Council for Scotland and the Scottish School Board Association. Prior to his joining the staff of the EIS, he pursued a political career, being the Parliamentary Labour candidate for Perth and East Perthshire in 1964 (against Ian MacArthur) and for Glasgow Cathcart in 1966 (against Teddy Taylor). He abandoned this because a political career was ultimately incompatible with a career in the EIS, to which he became increasingly committed. However, in his retirement he has been a council candidate for the Newington ward in Edinburgh and the Brucefield and Nethertown ward in Dunfermline.