Francis Hamilton

Born in Scotland in 1762, Francis Buchanan later became known as Francis Hamilton after inheriting his mother's family estate. Trained in medicine at the University of Edinburgh, he joined the Bengal Medical Service and built a career that reached far beyond medicine.

While living and working in India, he traveled widely and recorded what he saw with unusual range and care. He wrote major surveys of regions including Mysore and Nepal, and he also studied fish, plants, and other wildlife, becoming an important figure in zoology, botany, and geography.

What makes his work especially interesting for readers today is its mix of scientific detail and travel writing. Hamilton's books preserve a vivid record of South Asia in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, showing a mind equally drawn to people, places, and the natural world.