British Novelist and Essayist. He was the only child of Edward Morgan Llewellyn Forster, an architect, and his wife, the former Alice Clara Whichelo. His father was a grandson of Henry Thornton (1760-1815), an English economist, banker, abolitionist, parliamentarian, and philanthropist, who was considered one of the leaders of the Clapham Sect, a social reform group within the Church of England that is often credited with an integral role in the development of Victorian morality. He had not reached his second birthday when his father died of tuberculosis and he developed a strong bond with his mother that lasted until her death at the age of ninety years. The young Forster was left a sizable bequest of £8,000 (equal to nearly one million pounds today) by his great-aunt, Marianne Thornton (1797-1887), that enabled him the luxury to focus on writing without the worry of seeking an income. He attended King's College, Cambridge where he was a member of a discussion group, the Apostles, who focused on issues related to morality and philosophy. It was from this group that many members of the Bloomsbury group, an influential group of English writers and intellectuals, would be constituted. Forster travelled in Europe after leaving the university and resided with his mother in Weybridge, Surrey upon returning to England, where he wrote all six of his novels. He was a conscientious objector during World War I and served with the British Red Cross in Alexandria, Egypt. Forster spent time in India in 1914 and returned a second time in the early 1920s, serving as private secretary to Tukojirao III (1888-1937), Maharajah of Dewas. Five of Forster's six novels were published during his lifetime: Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905); The Longest Journey (1907); A Room with a View (1908); Howards End (1910); and A Passage to India (1924). His sixth novel, Maurice, was published posthumously, in 1971. Much of his work examines propriety and hypocrisy as well as class, cultural, and racial differences. His final work, Maurice, is a tale of homosexual, cross-class love that the author felt too controversial to publish in his lifetime as homosexuality was only decriminalized in 1967, not long before his death, and publication posed the real threat of prosecution. Sexuality is a key theme in Forster's work and critics have argued that during the span of his work a shift from heterosexual to homosexual love can be seen. Forster's work includes a number of short stories, essays, and other miscellaneous writings, but he is known primarily for his six novels, many of which have been adapted to film. He resided with his mother in Abinger Hammer, Surrey from 1925 until her death in 1945. Forster was elected an honorary fellow of King's College in 1946 and thereafter primarily resided in the college. He declined a knighthood in 1949, but was made a Companion of Honour in 1953, a member of the Order of Merit in 1969, and in 1961 was one of the first five authors named as a Companion of Literature, the highest award bestowed by the Royal Society of Literature. Forster was an openly gay man to his close friends, but because of the time in which he lived, was not publicly, openly gay. In his later years he resided with Robert and May Buckingham in Coventry, Warwickshire. Forster's ashes were mingled with those of Robert Buckingham and were scattered in the rose garden of Canley Garden Cemetery and Crematorium.