George Forty (10 September 1927 – 19 May 2016) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer who was chief of staff of the

Royal Armoured Corps The Royal Armoured Corps is the component of the British Army, that together with the Household Cavalry provides its armour capability, with vehicles such as the Challenger 2 Tank and the Scimitar Reconnaissance Vehicle. It includes most of the A ...

gunnery school and later director of

the Tank Museum The Tank Museum (previously The Bovington Tank Museum) is a collection of armoured fighting vehicles at Bovington Camp in Dorset, South West England. It is about north of the village of Wool and west of the major port of Poole. The collection ...

, and also author of many books on warfare.

Education and military career

Forty was born in London and educated at

Ashville College Ashville College is a co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils aged 2–18 in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1877 as a boarding school for boys by the United Methodist Free Churches. It incorp ...

and at Queen's College,

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. He joined the British Army in 1945, and was part of the first post-war class commissioned from the

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial officer training centre. It is located in the town of ...

in 1948. He served in the

British Army of the Rhine There have been two formations named British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). Both were originally occupation forces in Germany, one after the First World War and the other after the Second World War. Both formations had areas of responsibility located a ...

in the

1st Royal Tank Regiment The 1st Royal Tank Regiment (1 RTR) was an Armoured warfare, armoured regiment of the British Army. It is part of the Royal Tank Regiment, itself part of the Royal Armoured Corps and operationally under 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade (United Kingd ...

, in Korea, where he was wounded in the

Third Battle of the Hook The Third Battle of the Hook () was a battle of the Korean War that took place between a United Nations Command (UN) force, consisting mostly of British troops, supported on their flanks by American and Turkish units against a predominantly Ch ...

in May 1953, and in

Aden Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...

, the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...

and

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

in command of an armoured reconnaissance squadron. After attending the

Staff College Staff colleges (also command and staff colleges and War colleges) train military officers in the administrative, military staff and policy aspects of their profession. It is usual for such training to occur at several levels in a career. For ex ...

in 1959, he held appointments at the Army Air Corps Centre and the Royal Armoured Corps Tactical, Signals and Gunnery Schools before retiring in 1971.

Writer and museum director

Forty published more than 70 books with a focus on

armoured warfare Armoured warfare or armored warfare (mechanized forces, armoured forces or armored forces) (American English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences), is the use of armoured fighting vehicle, armo ...

and also on wartime in

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

. From 1981 until his retirement in 1993 he served as the curator (director) of the Tank Museum. He modernised and greatly expanded it, becoming known as the "father of the Tank Museum". Forty's wife, Anne, worked with him at the Tank Museum. They had four sons, one of whom works at the

Royal Signals Museum The Royal Signals Museum is a military museum based at Blandford Camp in the civil parish of Tarrant Monkton, northwest of the town of Blandford Forum in Dorset, England. The museum traces the history of the British Army’s battlefield commun ...

Honours

Forty was elected a Fellow of the

Museums Association The Museums Association (MA) is a professional membership organisation based in London for museum, gallery and heritage professionals, museums, galleries and heritage organisations, and companies that work in the museum, gallery and heritage s ...

and in 1994 was appointed an OBE.

Works

*''Hitler's Atlantic Wall'' *'' The Japanese Army Handbook 1939-1945'' (1999) *''Companion to the British Army 1939-45'' *''US Marine Corps Handbook 1941-1945'' *''Patton's Third Army at War'' *''Desert Rats at War'' *''World Encyclopedia of Tanks and Armoured Vehicles'' *''Tiger Tank Battalions in World War II'' *''Battle of Crete'' *''The Armies of Rommel'' *''Road to Berlin'' *''The Soldier's Story: WWII German Infantryman'' *''The Reich's Last Gamble: The Ardennes Offensive, December 1944''

References

1927 births 2016 deaths Royal Tank Regiment officers British military writers Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Ashville College Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford Fellows of the Museums Association Graduates of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst British Army personnel of the Korean War Royal Armoured Corps officers Military personnel from London Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley {{UK-army-bio-stub