George Forrest

George Forrest (13 March 1873 – 5 January 1932) was a Scottish botanist, who became one of the first western explorers of China's then remote southwestern province of Yunnan, generally regarded as the most biodiverse province in the country.

Early life George Forrest was born in Falkirk, Scotland on 13 March 1873. He went to Kilmarnock Academy. After leaving school, he was apprenticed with a local chemist until 1891 when, on the inheritance of a small legacy, he then decided to travel to Australia, where he searched for gold and also worked on a sheep station before returning to Scotland in 1902. Forrest's life then took a most unexpected turn; caught in a shower while fishing the Gladhouse Loch in Tweedsdale, he sought shelter beneath an overhanging bank where he chanced upon an ancient stone coffin.

The discovery led to his introduction to Professor Bayley Balfour, Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, who offered him a job in the Herbarium.

Plant collecting George Forrest made his first expedition to Yunnan in 1904. In August, he arrived at the town of Talifu (Dali City). but this did not discourage him from returning to Yunnan. The Lamas pursued him until a Naxi "King" named Lee rescued him. He witnessed atrocities committed by the Lamas during the rebellion. He eventually became perhaps the foremost collector of Yunnan flora, amassing hundreds of species of rhododendron, and other shrubs and perennials.

He was honoured with the Royal Horticultural Society's Victoria Medal of Honour in 1921, and the Veitch Memorial Medal in 1927, and was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1924.

Botanical specimens collected by Forrest are held at herbaria around the world, most notably at the herbarium at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Collections are also held at the Hong Kong Herbarium, National Herbarium of Victoria at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Harvard University Herbaria, the herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

Personal life Forrest married Clementina Traill in 1907; they had three sons.

Death On 5 January 1932, while hunting game in the hills near Tengchong, the town wherein Forrest traditionally set up his base, he suffered a massive heart attack and died instantly. He was buried at Tengchong, next to his friend George Litton, who had been Acting British Consul there until his death 26 years earlier.

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