Bertie Charles Forbes

Forbes was born in New Deer, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the son of Agnes (Moir) and Robert Forbes, a storekeeper and tailor at Whitehill, one of their ten children. Forbes attended University College, Dundee, which was then part of the University of St Andrews.

In 1897, Forbes worked as a reporter and editorial writer with a local newspaper. In 1901, he moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he worked on the Rand Daily Mail under its first editor, Edgar Wallace.

In 1904, he immigrated to New York City where he was employed as a writer and financial editor at the Journal of Commerce before joining the Hearst chain of newspapers as a syndicated columnist in 1911. After two years, he became the business and financial editor at Hearst's New York American, where he remained until 1916.

He founded Forbes magazine in 1917 and remained the magazine's editor-in-chief until his death in New York City in 1954, though he was assisted in his later years by his two eldest sons, Bruce Charles Forbes and Malcolm Stevenson Forbes.

Forbes was the founder of the Investors League in 1942.

The Forbes family includes a number of related people that founded, and have worked for, Forbes magazine. The family has close ties to Princeton University, with their namesake Forbes College as one of Princeton's residential colleges. Noted members include:

Bertie Charles Forbes, a.k.a. B.C. Forbes (1880–1954), the founder of the magazine

Bruce Charles Forbes (1916–1964), eldest son of B.C. Forbes

Malcolm Stevenson Forbes (1919–1990), son and successor of B.C. Forbes

Steve Forbes a.k.a. Malcolm Forbes Jr. (b. 1947), son of Malcolm Forbes, current editor-in-chief and former chairman, president, and CEO of the company

Moira Forbes (b. 1979), daughter of Steve Forbes

Christopher Forbes (b. 1950), son of Malcolm Forbes, former Vice Chairman and a Vice Chancellor of the American Association of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta

Robert Laidlaw Forbes, son of Malcolm Forbes

Tim Forbes, son of Malcolm Forbes and former president and chief operating officer

Moira Hamilton, daughter of Malcolm Forbes