James Staats Forbes

James Staats Forbes (7 March 1823 – 5 April 1904) was a Scottish railway engineer, railway administrator and art collector. He was the uncle of the painter Stanhope Alexander Forbes, and father of the zoologist William Alexander Forbes. Early life James Staats Forbes was born on 7 March 1823 at Aberdeen, Scotland. He was the eldest of the six sons of James Staats Forbes and his wife Ann, née Walker. He went to school in Woolwich, and in 1840 was taken on as a draughtsman in the office of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, at that time chief engineer of the Great Western Railway. In 1841 Forbes joined the Great Western as a clerk, and in a short time rose to goods manager. On 20 August 1851, Forbes married Ann Bennett; they had two sons and two daughters. She died in 1901. Career