John Forbes Royle

Who was John Forbes Royle?

John Forbes Royle, British botanist and teacher of materia medica, was born in Kanpur in 1799. Entering the service of the East India Company as assistant surgeon, he devoted himself to studying botany and geology, and made large collections among the Himalaya Mountains. He also investigated the medical properties of the plants of Hindustan and the history of their uses among the native races. The results of these investigations appeared in an essay On the Antiquity of Hindu Medicine. For nearly ten years he held the post of superintendent of the East India Company's botanic garden in the Himalayas at Saharanpur. In 1837 he was appointed to the professorship of materia medica in King's College London, which he held till 1856. From 1838 onwards be conducted a special department of correspondence, relating to vegetable products, at the East India House, and at the time of his death he had just completed there an extensive and valuable museum of technical products from the East Indies. In 1851 he superintended the Indian department of the Great Exhibition. He died at Acton near London on 2 January 1858.