Service Details
- Branch of Service
- Army
- Conflict
- World War II (1939-1945)
- Date of Enlistment
- 15/12/1942
- Date of Discharge
- 18/04/1947
- Place of Enlistment
- Duntroon ACT
Personal Details
- Gender
- Male
- Date of Birth
- 16/12/1923
- Place of Birth
- Hobart, Tasmania
- Address (at enlistment)
- Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT
- Occupation
- Soldier
- Next of Kin
- Alexander Forbes (father)
Unit and Rank Details
- Service Number
- 435375 (NX138171)
- Final Rank
- Lieutenant
- Final Unit
- 2 Australian Mountain Battery
Awards and Honours
Military Cross (Commonwealth of Australia Gazette 14 June 1945)
Notes
Jim Forbes, the son of Alexander Forbes, entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon on 22 February 1941 and graduated on 14 December 1942. He enlisted the next day and served at first in Darwin which was still suffering air raids by the Japanese. He was with the 2nd Mountain Battery in New Guinea during 1944-45 operating in the jungles of Bougainville. Forbes was awarded the Military Cross for his "courage and devotion to duty Genga & Gillman RVS" during January and February 1945. The Genga and Gillman were rivers on the island of Bougainville where Australian troops fought the Japanese during 1944 and 1945. After the war he attended university at Adelaide and Oxford and in 1956 entered Federal parliament as the Liberal Party member for the South Australian seat of Barker. He served as a Minister in a number of roles - Army (1963-66), Navy (1963-64), Health (1966-71) and Immigration (1971-72). It was Forbes, as Minister for the Army, who introduced conscription in 1964. He retired from Parliament at the 1975 election. In 1977 he was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) for his service to parliament.
Sources
WWII Nominal Roll http://www.ww2roll.gov.au
Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952 (p.243)
AWM Honours & Awards
It's an Honour: Australia Celebrating Australians http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/honours
The Duntroon Society, 'The A.M. Forbes Block', Newsletter 2/1990
Crikey.com - 'We had to bring it in: Defending conscription 50 years on' by Kevin Naughton (http://www.crikey.com.au/2014/01/08/we-had-to-bring-it-in-defending-conscription-50-years-on/)