John Lindsay Stewart

Dr John Lindsay Stewart FRSE FRCS FRGS FLS (1831–1873) was a 19th-century Scottish botanist remembered for his conservation of Indian forests.

Life

He was born in Fettercairn on 13 December 1831.

He studied Medicine at Glasgow University under Prof George Arnott Walker-Arnott receiving his doctorate (MD) in 1853. He then sat the exam for the Indian Medical Service, passing, and going to Bengal in 1856 as an assistant surgeon. In 1857 he was present at the Siege of Delhi, one of the decisive points in the Indian Mutiny. In 1858 he joined the expedition to Yusufzai and served some time with the Punjab regiments. In 1860 he left his medical duties to become Superintendent of the Botanic Gardens at Saharunpore under the jurisdiction of Dr William Jameson, delegating for him during a year of absence. He also had duties overseeing the government tea plantations in the region.[1]

Following Jameson's return in 1861 he returned to medicine as a civilian surgeon in Bijnour.

In 1864 he was put in charge of a programme of forest conservation in the Five Rivers region, continuing in this role for five years, and establishing systems echoed in many later conservation projects.

In 1872 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposer being John Hutton Balfour.[2]

He died on 7 July 1873 at the Hill Sanatorium in Dalhousie in India.[3]

Publications
  • Punjab Plants

References


  1. Transactions of the Edinburgh Botanical Society: January 1874
  2. Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
  3. https://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH16779&type=P
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