Professor Edward Forbes HRSA 1815-1854

Today marks the 168th anniversary of the death of our shortest-ever-serving Honorary Member, Professor Edward Forbes. A native of the Isle of Man where he was born in 1815, Forbes was a leading scientist and zoologist whose original aspiration to pursue a career as an artist was blunted when he was rejected for admittance to the Royal Academy Schools. Forbes became a student of medicine at the University of Edinburgh before undertaking extensive overseas travel to pursue his interest in molluscs and starfish. He was particularly influential in the early...