It was October 1888, and on this particular night, London was drearily cold and foggy. It was definitely not a night to be outside but rather at home in front of a good, well-built fire. Lord and Lady Forbes had decided to do precisely that. They would stay in and sit in front of the fire rather than face the bitter winds and rain that they could hear slamming against their window panes.
Lord Forbes, the former Thomas Forbes, had not started life out as a lord but rather as the son of a gamekeeper. He had grown up on a member of the aristocracies estate in Devon. Still, he had wanted much more out of life than his father and, early on, realised that he was not happy with the class system. A system that would have kept him in servitude. When his father was no longer considered fit enough to carry out his duties and was forced to retire, he would replace him as the gamekeeper.
Thomas decided to escape those expectancies for his life. So he made his way from Devon to London with nothing much more than the clothes on his back. Upon arrival, he had quickly found work as a groom; he was very good with horses, and of course, back in 1888, they were the primary mode of transport.
As he worked, he was astute enough to save and invest some of his money, not something prevalent for the working class in those days. Sometimes the investments were not successful; fortunately, he seemed to have an inordinate amount of luck for the majority of his investments. With the money that his investments brought him, he started to buy properties and eventually take over several different businesses. He also began lending some of his newfound riches to the upper classes, some of whom could not always pay back their loans and thus became owing to Thomas.
Thomas soon came up with a way for them to absolve themselves of their debts and thus not suffer the disgrace of being taken to court by a commoner for unpaid debts. In lieu of their repayment obligations, Thomas asked for favours that would make him more affluent and more influential. One of his debtors had been a well thought of Prime Minister. When he could not pay what he owed, Thomas asked for a contract for one of his acquired businesses, a contract to make ships for the Royal Navy. The Prime Minister beholding to Thomas had no option but to ensure that Thomas got the agreement on the terms he desired.
As Thomas rose in eminence in the business world, he was eventually knighted by Queen Victoria. He had now become one of the richest men in Britain, and with his knighthood, he felt he had defeated the class system he hated so much. He became a philanthropist, donating to many charities and endowing hospitals and universities with the money they needed to keep running. As a result of all his charitable work, it was only a matter of time before he was awarded a peerage.