John Forbes may refer to:

Science

  • John Forbes (botanist) (1799–1823), English botanist
  • John Forbes (physician) (1787–1861), Scottish physician
  • John Ripley Forbes (1913–2006), American naturalist and conservationist

Military

  • John Forbes (British Army officer) (1707–1759), British general in the French and Indian War
  • John Forbes (Portuguese general) (1733–1808), Scottish general in the Portuguese service
  • John Forbes (Royal Navy officer) (1714–1796), British admiral and politician
  • John Morrison Forbes (1925–2021), British admiral

Religion

  • John Forbes (friar) (1571–1606), Scottish Capuchin friar
  • John Forbes (Gaelic scholar) (1818–1863), Scottish minister and Gaelic translator
  • John Forbes (Alford minister) (c. 1568–1634), Scottish minister exiled by James VI and I
  • John Forbes (theologian, born 1593) (1593–1648), Scottish theologian; one of the six "Aberdeen doctors"
  • John Forbes (minister of St Paul's, Glasgow) (1800-25 December 1874) Scottish mathematician and minister

Politics and law

  • John Forbes (died 1734) (c. 1673–1734), Scottish member of the British Parliament for Inverness-shire, 1715–1722
  • John Forbes (1801–1840), British Member of Parliament and East India Company director
  • John Forbes (Iowa politician) (born 1956), Iowa State Representative
  • John Hay Forbes, Lord Medwyn (1776–1854), Scottish judge
  • John Murray Forbes (diplomat) (1771–1831), American diplomat
  • John W. Forbes II, American government official in Virginia

Sports

  • John Forbes (cricketer) (1931–2017), South African cricketer
  • John Forbes (footballer) (1862–1928), Scottish footballer
  • John Forbes (sailor) (born 1970), Australian Olympian sailor
  • John Forbes (rugby union), Scottish international rugby union player

Business

  • John Forbes and Company, the British firm of John Forbes (1767–1823) and his brother Thomas (†1808), a trading company active in the southeastern United States and India, from 1804 to 1847
  • John Murray Forbes (1813–1898), American banker and railroad president
  • John Malcolm Forbes (1847–1904), American businessman, yachtsman and horseman

Other people

  • John Forbes (architect) (1795?–?), British architect
  • John Forbes (poet) (1950–1998), Australian poet
  • John Forbes, 6th Lord Forbes (died 1547), Scottish landowner
  • John Forbes, 8th Lord Forbes (1542–1606), Scottish aristocrat
  • John J. Forbes, American mining engineer
  • John Stuart Hepburn Forbes, Scottish baronet, landowner, advocate and agriculturalist

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