Description
Born in 1815, Edward Forbes was a delicate child and unable to attend school until the age of 12. At home, however, he nurtured his interest in natural history and before he was 10 years old a small wing had been added to his house as a museum for him, in which he stored fossils, shells, minerals, flowers, butterflies etc., all classified.

Despite attempts by his parents to steer his career on the course of art or medicine, his botanical interests always prevailed. Inspired by the excursions of Professor Graham during Forbes’ studies at the University of Edinburgh, he conducted his own excursion to Norway at the age of 18. His particular interest was the geographical distribution of the flora and fauna of the world and this theme constituted one of the leading features of all his writings.

In February 1841 he obtained the appointment of Naturalist on HMS Beacon which was employed in surveying the coast of Asia Minor and the adjacent islands. He was on the point of proceeding to Egypt and the Red Sea when he learned that he had been elected to fill the chair of Botany at King’s College, London. Forbes retained this position for many years whilst also becoming the Assistant-Secretary (and eventually President) of the Geological Society, a member of the Linnaean Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society.

His most notable works include “Memoirs of the Geological Survey” and “The History of British Mollusca” although some claimed that his ideas were mostly speculation and that his great works would have come later had his life not been tragically cut short. Unfortunately he is also widely know for his “azoic theory”, which stated that marine life did not exist on sea beds at depths over 300 fathoms (1800 feet), a theory which was soon to be disproved.

His love of expeditions contributed to his untimely death. The fever that he had caught in the east on HMS Beacon resurfaced and he died in 1854 at the age of just 39.
14/05/2003
Created by: Tudor. Rebecca on 14/05/2003