Francis Nigel Forman (25 March 1943 – 11 May 2017), known as Nigel Forman, was a British Conservative politician. After working in the Conservative Research Department from 1968 to 1976 he was elected as an MP. He became a junior minister, Minister of Higher Education, in April 1992, but resigned from that office after 8 months. Forman lost his Parliamentary seat in the 1997 general election. He later worked as a lecturer, academic writer and Parliamentary expert/instructor. He was married to Susan Forman in 1971. The couple had no children. Early career Forman was born in Simla, India where his father served as a brigadier in the Indian Army. Forman was educated at the Dragon School, Shrewsbury School, New College, Oxford, College of Europe (Bruges), Harvard and Sussex University. He obtained various degrees from the latter four including a Master of Public Administration from Harvard, a Certificate of Advanced European Studies (equivalent to a master's degree) from the College of Europe (class of 1965–66) and a Ph.D from Sussex University. In his Times obituary he was described as "something of a perpetual student". His first significant job was from 1967 to 1968 as an information officer at the Confederation of British Industry. In 1968 he joined the Conservative Research Department ('CRD' – the research operation of the party) and began the quest to find himself a seat in Parliament. He progressed rapidly in the CRD, acting as ‘external affairs adviser’ to Official Opposition leader Heath. He served Margaret Thatcher in the same capacity from 1975 to 1976. He was promoted to Assistant Director with special responsibility for European affairs. He contested the Coventry North East seat as a member of the party in the February 1974 contest but was not elected. After the elevation of Robert Carr to the peerage in 1976, Forman was centrally recommended and selected as his replacement for the resultant by-election. Backbench MP Forman was elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament (MP) for Carshalton at its by-election on 11 March 1976. He took the seat with a 10,000 majority over Labour, compared with Carr's 4,000 majority in October 1974. When the seat's boundaries were revised for the 1983 election it was renamed Carshalton and Wallington. The seat, the eastern half of the London Borough of Sutton, was socially mixed. In 1976 it had much social housing yet had streets of expensive detached