Gordon Graham
Soldier and publisher Born: June 17, 1920; Died: April 24, 2015.
GORDON GRAHAM, who has died aged 94, was a solider who saw distinguished service with 1st Battalion The Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders (QOCH) in a forced crossing of the Irrawaddy River in Burma. It happened in 1945 during an attempt to relieve the city of Mandalay, which had been virtually destroyed by Japanese bombing – Mr Graham led a surprise assault in rubber dinghies to secure a bridge head on the opposite bank.
The casualties were heavy but Mr Graham manoeuvred the dinghy through the barrage of enemy fire and courageously led the party on an assault up a severely steep bank. The bridgehead was established and was held until reinforcements arrived. He was awarded the Military Cross and the citation paid tribute “to the magnificent example that he set by his courage, initiative and inspiring leadership”.
William Gordon Graham was born in Glasgow, attended Hutchesons’ Grammar School and read law at Glasgow University. He was commissioned into the QOCH in 1941 and served with the 1st Battalion in India and Burma.
Later in the Burma campaign, he and his men came under repeated fire. He was commanded to move his men by night to regroup on the right flank of the QOCH’s dangerously exposed position. The manoeuvre was tortuous through dense elephant grass but Mr Graham again established a position under hazardous conditions. For his outstanding bravery and display of determined leadership Mr Graham was awarded a Bar to his MC. The citation mentioned “his magnificent contempt of danger and superb handling of a critical situation”.
Mr Graham was involved in a crucial phase of the war in the Far East and the Battle of Kohima undoubtedly curtailed the Japanese advance towards India. He later wrote about his experiences in The Trees are all Young on Garrison Hill.
Last year, Mr Graham along with other veterans of the Battle of Kohima, led by Colonel David Murray, attended a service at St Stephen’s Church, Inverness, to commemorate their fallen colleagues. Mr Graham recalled it was “shocking to see so many of his comrades die. So many of the deaths were bizarre.”
He was demobbed as a major and worked as a correspondent for the Times of India and as a publisher in Asia. In 1956 he became international sales manager of the McGraw-Hill Book Company in New York and returned in 1964 to run their UK operation. In 1974, he was appointed chairman and chief executive of the publishing house Butterworth – part of Reed International.
In 1990 he retired but it gave him the opportunity to found a non-profit making quarterly magazine, Logos, which served the publishing industry and its authors. It cast its advice wide and included comments of use to libraries, retailers and agents. In 2009 the firm was bought by Brill, an old established firm in Holland.
Mr Graham was influential in creating the Kohima Educational Trust, founded by veterans of the Battle of Kohima, in gratitude to the Naga people who had supported the Allies during the struggles of the 1940s. In 2003 Prince Andrew became the patron of the trust and in January of this year, Mr Graham’s youngest daughter Sylvia May main- tained the strong family connection by becoming the chief executive.
Mr Graham was a past president of the Publishers Association and a member of the Council of the British Library. In 1993, he received an honorary doctorate from Stirling University.
He was a proud and loyal member of the QOCH. Col David Murray has written remembering his former colleague with much admiration. “To me Gordon epitomised the Happy Warrior. He was endowed with courage above the average, he had the gift of making those around him feel brave, too. He was also highly competent; things always went better when Gordon was around.”
Mr Graham was thrice married. His first two wives, Margaret Milne and Friedel Gramm, both predeceased him. In 1992 he married Betty Cottrell, who survives him with a daughter of his first marriage and one of his second.