Henry O. (Henry Ogg) Forbes

Born in Drumblade, Aberdeenshire, on 30 January 1851, Henry Ogg Forbes trained in medicine in Aberdeen and Edinburgh before an eye injury pushed him away from a medical career and toward natural history. He became known as an explorer, ornithologist, and botanist, with major periods of work in the Malay Archipelago and New Guinea.

Forbes is especially remembered for the travels that led to his book A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago, drawn from journeys between 1878 and 1883. He later served as director of the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand, and went on to work in Liverpool, where he was involved with museum and expedition work, including the Socotra expedition of 1898–1899.

His career joined adventurous travel with close scientific observation. Even when some of his big ideas were debated, his fieldwork, collecting, and writing helped widen knowledge of plants, birds, and the natural history of regions that were still little known to many readers in Britain.