Alexander Kinloch Forbes

Forbes was born in London on 7 July 1821 to John Forbes-Mitchell (1786-1822) of Thainston and Ann Powell (m. 1809 d. 1861). He was the youngest among six siblings. He was christened on 9 August 1821 at St. Mary, St. Marylebone, London. He was educated at a school in Finchley. He articled to George Basevi, an architect, for eight months but later joined a college Haileybury as he was appointed to Bombay Civil Service by Sir Charles Forbes in 1840. He left it in 1842 and arrived in Bombay, India in November 1843.

Forbes was appointed in 1842 to the Civil Service of the East India Company, later moved to Bombay in 1843. He spent his initial two and half years as Assistant Collector of Ahmednagar and Khandesh. Later he was appointed as Assistant Judge in Ahmedabad in November 1846 where he noted the absence of literary society. He served in different departments in Gujarat such as First Assistant Collector of Ahmedabad and Political Agent to Mahi Kantha until he went home in March 1854. During this period he collected material which was later published as Ras Mala in 1856.

He went back to England in 1854 and returned at the end of 1856. He was appointed as Assistant Judge at Surat and later, in 1858, appointed to the same post at Khandesh. He returned to Gujarat and applied for the vacant Political Agency of Kathiawar. He was turned down but later moved to Kathiawar in September 1859 to subdue the Indian rebellion of 1857 by the Vaghers. The rebellion subdued by March 1860 and he returned to Surat as the Acting Judge. He was appointed Secretary to the Government in March 1861.

He accepted a post in Sudder Court which made him one of the first six Judges of the Bombay High Court in August 1862. He served there until his death in 1865. He also held the honorary post of Vice Chancellor of the University of Bombay. The A. Kinloch Forbes Gold Medal was awarded for proficiency in law at LL.B. Examination of the university.

Forbes married Margaret-Moir Forbes-Mitchell (1825-1 November 1904), daughter of Henry David Forbes-Mitchell of Bawlgownie, in Bombay on 25 March 1846. They had six children; Edward Esme Forbes (1855-1920), Emmeline Maria Elizabeth Forbes, Margaret Theodora Lawrence Forbes (d. 1939), John Fraser Forbes (1847-1887), Henry David Erskine Forbes (1849-1920), and Alexander Abernethie Forbes (b. 1851).