129589 Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Denis FORMAN, OBE, MiD, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders

Personal Number: 129589
Rank: Lieutenant-Colonel
Name: Sir John Denis FORMAN, OBE, MiD
Unit: Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders


London Gazette : 26 April 1940
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/34837/supplement/2461/data.pdf
The undermentioned Cadets, from 164th, 165th, 166th, 167th, 168th, and 170th O.C.T.U., to be 2nd Lts. except as otherwise stated. 20th Apr. 1940:—
A. & S.H.
John Denis FORMAN (129589).

London Gazette : 24 August 1944
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/36668/supplement/3933/data.pdf
The KING has been graciously pleased to approve that the following be Mentioned in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in Italy : —
A. & S.H.
Maj. (temp Lt.-Col.) J. D. Forman (129589).

London Gazette : 31 May 1956
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/40787/supplement/3112/data.pdf
The QUEEN has been graciously pleased, on the occasion of the Celebration of Her Majesty's Birthday, to give orders for the following promotions in, and appointments to, the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire:—
To be Ordinary Officers of the Civil Division of the said Most Excellent Order:—
John Denis FORMAN, Esq., lately Director, British Film Institute.

London Gazette : 1 January 1976
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/46777/supplement/1/data.pdf
THE QUEEN has been graciously pleased to signify her intention of conferring the Honour of Knighthood upon the undermentioned:
Knights Bachelor
John Denis FORMAN, O.B.E., Chairman and Managing Director, Granada Television Ltd.

 

London Gazette : 24 August 1944
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/36668/supplement/3926/data.pdf

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/36668/supplement/3933/data.pdf

 

See also:

• Denis Forman - Wikipedia
• "Forman had a distinguished military career during the Second World War and was wounded at Monte Cassino,losing a leg."
  
• Sir Denis Forman obituary
• Forman was 21 when the second world war broke out. Instead of girding up for the exhausting and hard-drinking round of Highland balls that rounded off the Scottish social season, he was commissioned in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and might have spent the whole war in remote northern outposts had it not been for his interest in military training. He was disheartened by the archaic training the infantry was still being given, based on drills more appropriate to Waterloo than the German blitzkrieg. When he heard of a revolutionary new Battle School at Barnard Castle, in Durham, teaching "battle drill", he agitated to be sent on one of its courses, in order to set up similar training in his own division. The doctrine was the brainchild of a peacetime solicitor and territorial officer, Lionel Wigram. It concentrated on tactics for basic groups of infantry, and sent them over punishing assault courses, under fire from live ammunition, to develop fighting spirit. Forman became Wigram's disciple, and succeeded him as commandant of the Battle School when Wigram was sent out to the Mediterranean to see how his ideas were working in real warfare. Arriving in the same theatre a few months later, Forman was horrified to find his hero in disgrace. Wigram had duly observed the Sicilian campaign. In his report he had criticised the performance and morale of Eighth Army troops taking part. General Bernard Montgomery was outraged. Forman devoted much of his second slice of autobiography, To Reason Why (1991), to defending Wigram, who was killed in 1944 while leading a troop of Italian partisans. Forman received his grim wound at Cassino a few weeks later. A smoke canister fired by a supporting gun battery smashed his leg. "Hopping about on crutches," as he put it, he was back on duty towards the end of the war at an officer cadet training unit. There, he met Fred Majdalany, who had been a journalist and theatre publicist. Majdalany had just published The Monastery, a soldier's-eye account of the Battle of Cassino that won critical acclaim. As his demobilisation approached, Majdalany landed himself a job as the film critic of the Daily Mail. Forman had already acquired a practical interest in the cinema – he and Wigram had planned to make instructional films to augment their battle drill courses. Inspired by Majdalany's example, he thought now about making the cinema a career.

• 37042 Major Lionel WIGRAM, Royal Fusiliers: 03/01/1944
• 129657 Major Fred (Fareed) MAJDALANY, MC, 2 Lancashire Fusiliers

 

Copied from my post on Major Wigram.

Looking further it was published in 2008, within a book 'To Reason Why' by Denis Forman, publisher Pen & Sword.

The Abstracts states:

Link: To Reason Why and https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reason-Why-Sir-Denis-Forman/dp/184415792X