[3] On 24 April 1945, Forbes was awarded the Military Cross (MC) in recognition of gallant and distinguished service in the South West Pacific.

[9] He first stood for parliament at the 1955 federal election, aged 31, losing to the incumbent Australian Labor Party (ALP) member Pat Galvin in the seat of Kingston.

[10] The following year, he won the Liberal nomination at a by-election for the much friendlier seat of Barker caused by the death of Speaker Archie Cameron.

[12] In parliament, Forbes became part of the "Oxbridge group", the name given by journalists to a set of "outspoken" Liberal backbenchers who had studied at Oxford and Cambridge.

He was also appointed Minister for the Navy on a temporary basis, in the expectation that Fred Chaney would take over once parliament approved an enlargement of the ministry; this occurred in March 1964.

He made the controversial decision to close the government-owned Canberra Abattoir, the announcement of which in March 1969 prompted the resignation of the entire Australian Capital Territory Advisory Council.

"[20] Forbes also ordered the deportation of musician Joe Cocker in 1972, after a small quantity of cannabis was found by police in his Adelaide hotel room and he was charged with assault following a brawl at a Melbourne pub.

[21] In a 2014 interview Forbes stated that, while he accepted responsibility for the decision, he "didn't think it was necessary" and had been pressured by McMahon who believed it would be politically popular.

Forbes demanded that the remark be withdrawn; and Opposition Leader Billy Snedden, for his part, told parliament that Whitlam should be ashamed of himself.

Eventually, Whitlam (at the insistence of Speaker James Francis Cope) withdrew the remark, but only after ensuring that it had been transcribed by Hansard's stenographers.

[22][23] In early 1975 Snedden, having failed to defeat Whitlam at the previous year's election, was deposed as Opposition Leader by Malcolm Fraser.

[28] Having lived for many years in the Adelaide eastern suburb of St Peters, he died at Calvary Wakefield Hospital, aged 95, on 10 August 2019.