On retiring to Strathdon, Aberdeenshire, Hamish Forbes became deeply involved in the activities of the Lonach Highland and Friendly Society, founded by his ancestor Sir Charles Forbes in 1822 and of which he was patron from 1984 until his death.

As a young man he was taken prisoner during the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force to Dunkirk in 1940, subsequently becoming the scourge of his captors for his irrepressible determination to escape.

While a subaltern and battalion intelligence officer with 1st Welsh Guards during the fighting around Arras in May 1940, it fell to him to lead reconnaissance patrols to keep abreast of the extent of the enemy’s advance, to maintain contact with flanking units and to organise the close protection of battalion headquarters.

These tasks frequently exposed him to enemy fire, and it was his practice to be the last man to leave each position when battalion headquarters withdrew to the next one. It was in just that situation that he and a small protection party were surrounded and taken prisoner. Five years later his resolute conduct was recognised by the award of the Military Cross.

The intervening years did not find him idle. He led or was involved in ten escape attempts from four prisoner-of-war camps before succeeding in getting away with six companions from Oflag IXA/Z at Rotenburg, on the upper reaches of the River Weser, only to be recaptured. This attempt led to his incarceration in a civilian jail under threat of his prisoner-of-war status being ignored and consequent denial of his rights under the Geneva Conventions.

Three attempts to escape from the officers’ compound at Stalag VIIC at Laufen, close to the Austrian border, were ingenious in their concept but frustrated by ill-luck. A tunnel started from below the music room was discovered when the camp choir and orchestra suddenly stopped their playing which was intended to drown the sound of digging.

An attempt with a comrade to leave disguised as German electricians had to be cancelled because of a snap search of prisoners’ quarters; and a carefully timed window exit was blocked by a civilian sheltering from the rain in the street below.

Two tunnelling attempts from Oflag VIB at Warburg were thwarted by discovery, and a wire-cutting scheme from the same camp had to be abandoned due to a heavy snowfall. An exchange of identity with a Guardsman Parry due for transfer to a camp in Poland, for which Forbes had worked out an escape plan with Polish prisoners, was uncovered by an identity card check, but he and a South African Air Force officer used a hack-saw and a knife to escape from cells in a civilian jail at Paderborn, only to be caught on their way out of the building.

On transfer to Oflag VIIB at Eichstätt in Bavaria Forbes joined a clandestine camp workshop making accoutrements for German uniforms and keys for cell doors but was transferred to Oflag IXA/Z in Rotenburg before any could be used by an escape that included him. While in Rotenburg he used skeleton keys to get into the camp commandant’s office as a way out of the camp. He was caught on that occasion but after obtaining imprints of the keys to the main gates, he and six other prisoners reached open country, only to be recaptured after eight days at liberty while attempting to board a goods train.

As the war in Europe turned against Germany, many thousands of prisoners of war were marched in columns westwards, away from the advancing Soviet Army. Forbes made two attempts to slip out of his column and succeeded with two comrades on the third; throwing away their few precious belongings and keeping only some scanty rations, they made their way westwards to meet the vanguard of the 1st (US) Army. Four days later he was in England.

When the full account of his escape attempts and work for the escape of others became known in 1945, he was mentioned in dispatches and this was – most unusually – upgraded to an MBE (Military Division). He returned to the Welsh Guards, serving in England, Germany and with the CENTO staff in Turkey until retiring with the rank of major in 1958. He then worked for several business concerns, including Gillette and Shell-Mex BP, and gave more of his time to painting and sculpture, both abiding interests dating from his youth.

Hamish Stewart Forbes was educated at Eton, at Lawrenceville in the United States and the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. His dedication to the Lonach Society – whose aims are to foster the preservation of Highland dress and the Gaelic language and to promote social and benevolent feelings among the inhabitants of his region – was his most passionate interest.

He was also secretary of the Order of St John, 1973-83, and president of the Church Lads’ and Church Girls’ Brigade Association, 1974-2000.

Forbes succeeded to the baronetcy from his cousin in 1984. He was twice married: first to Jacynthe Underwood and secondly to Mary Christine Rigby. He is survived by his second wife, a son and three daughters of his first marriage. His son James succeeds to the title.

Major Sir Hamish Forbes, Bt, MBE, MC, patron of the Lonach Society, was born on February 15, 1916. He died on September 3, 2007 aged 91