Forres has been home to some famous names throughout its history, many of them making an impact around the world.
Perhaps most famous of all, is Alexander Grant, gifter of the eponymous Grant Park, inventor of the Digestive biscuit and owner of the Dunphail Estate.
And then we have Donald Alexander Smith, who sought his fortune in Canada, and made his mark around the town with philanthropic donations.
Hugh Falconer gave his name to the local museum, but he was more than a history buff. He travelled extensively in India, and discovered some flora, which was named after him.
Let’s look at them individually…
Sir Alexander Grant
1 October 1864 to 21 May 1937
On completing his apprenticeship in Forres, Grant moved to Edinburgh in 1888 taking employment as an assistant at Robert McVitie’s basement bakery at 23 to 25 Queensferry Street. In 1892 Grant developed the original recipe for the famous McVitie’s digestive biscuit – the recipe remains a secret to this day.
When the company expanded the business to Merchant Street and then on Robertson Avenue, as the St Andrew Biscuit Works factory, Grant was made foreman of the cake department. When that factory burned down in 1894. Grant was sent to Malton in Yorkshire to organise and carry on production at a temporary factory while the premises in Edinburgh were being rebuilt. On returning to Edinburgh later that year, Grant was made manager of the new operation.
Grant was a generous benefactor, and it was estimated that over his lifetime he gifted more than £750,000 of his own money, often anonymously. In 1923 he gave a permanent endowment of £100,000 to assist the British government in reconstituting The Advocates Library and from it establishing the National Library of Scotland.
Lord Macmillan, the Chairman of the National Library Committee, said that when Grant’s banker handed him the cheque for the endowment it was signed but the amount left blank for Macmillan to complete himself. Grant later made a further contribution of £100,000 to assist with the building of the Library.
Donald Alexander Smith
6 August 1820 – 21 January 1914
Donald Alexander Smith, later known as Lord Strathcona, was a prominent figure in Canadian history, recognised for his significant contributions as a businessman, politician, and philanthropist.
Born 6 August 1820, on Forres High Street. Smith was educated at Anderson’s Free School and on leaving at age sixteen he was apprenticed to become a lawyer in the offices of Robert Watson, Town Clerk of Forres. By the age of eighteen, Smith chose another career path: offered entry into mercantile life at Manchester, and a career in the Indian Civil Service, his choice was to pattern himself on his uncle John Stuart (who had by then returned to live near Forres) who offered him a junior clerkship in the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Smith chose to follow his uncle’s career and sailed to Montreal that year.
Smith’s connection to Forres remained significant throughout his life. Despite achieving considerable wealth and influence in Canada, he never forgot his roots in his home town. He often expressed his pride in his Scottish heritage, and his success was seen as a source of inspiration for the people of Forres and the surrounding region.
In 1838, Smith left Forres for Canada, where he began his career as a clerk with the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). His journey from a modest background in Forres to a leading position in the HBC was marked by determination and strategic acumen.
Smith played a pivotal role in the expansion of Canadian infrastructure, most notably as a driving force behind the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). His involvement in hammering the “Last Spike” in 1885 symboliced the unification of Canada from coast to coast.
Later, as Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, he became a notable philanthropist, contributing to educational and healthcare initiatives in both Canada and Scotland.
Smith’s life story, from Forres to the heights of Canadian society, exemplifies the transformative journey of a man who bridged continents and left an indelible mark on both his homeland and his adopted country.
Lady Eliza Maria Gordon-Cumming
née Campbell; 1795 – 21 April 1842
Lady Cumming was a skilled painter and keen horticulturalist who took up the study of the fossils on her Altyre estate near Forres around 1839. She collected fossils and instructed workers in the quarries on the estate to bring her any they found.
She collected a large number of specimens of fossil fish from the Devonian period and began a correspondence with the most famous geologists of the time; Louis Agassiz, William Buckland and Roderick Murchison all visited her collection in Scotland.
She sent illustrations, letters and specimens around Europe, and intended to publish her illustrations and theories on how these fish would have appeared in life. Some of these illustrations survive in the archives of the Geological Society. Some of her ideas about how the fossil remains should be interpreted were later discredited as more fossil evidence came to light, but her illustrations were highly respected. Her work was praised by Hugh Miller, a geologist from Cromarty.
Lady Cumming married Sir William Gordon Gordon-Cumming of Altyre in 1815. They had 13 children but Eliza died following the birth of her last child. Would they have had more?
Hugh Falconer
February 29, 1808 – January 31, 1865
Hugh Falconer was the youngest son of Forres man David Falconer. In 1826 he graduated from the University of Aberdeen, where he studied natural history. He then studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, becoming an MD in 1829. During this period, he zealously attended botany and geology classes held by Professor Robert Jameson, the teacher of Charles Darwin.
Falconer became an assistant-surgeon with the British East India Company in 1830. Upon his arrival in Bengal he made an examination of the fossil bones from Ava in upper Burma in the possession of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. His description of the fossils, published soon afterwards, gave him a recognised position among the scientists of India. Early in 1831, he was posted to the army station at Meerut, India, then in the North Western Provinces.
In 1832, Falconer became Superintendent of the Saharanpur botanical garden, India. He remained at Saharanpur until 1842, during which time he became widely known for his study of fossil mammals in the Siwalik Hills.
Falconer and his associates may have made the first discovery of a fossil ape, in the 1830s in the Neogene deposits in the Siwalik Hills. In 1831 Falconer discovered bones of crocodiles, tortoises and other animals. With others, he later brought to light a sub-tropical fossil fauna of unexampled extent and richness, including remains of Mastodon, the colossal ruminant Sivatherium, and the enormous extinct tortoise Colossochelys atlas. Falconer also published a geological description of the Siwálik Hills in 1834. For these valuable discoveries he and Proby Cautley (1802–1871) together received the Wollaston Medal from the Geological Society of London, its highest award, in 1837.
In 1834 Falconer was asked by a Commission of Bengal to investigate the commercial feasibility of growing tea in India. On his recommendation tea plants were introduced, and the resultant black tea became competitive with Chinese teas.
Falconer returned to the UK in 1842 because of ill health. He brought back 70 large chests of dried plants and 48 cases of fossils, bones and geological specimens. He then travelled throughout Europe making geological observations and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1845.
The Falconer Museum in Forres was founded in 1871 and houses, amongst numerous other collections, the many Falconer finds that had not been sent to other institutions like the library of Kew Gardens or the British Museum, including Palaeolithic finds that enable “visitors of the Falconer Museum to look at three different species of humans at once, homo erectus, homo neanderthalensis and homo sapiens“.
Hugh’s older brother Alexander, also bequeathed £1000 to help establish the museum, and it was named in their honour.
Unfortunately, the museum is currently closed due to council funding cuts, but it is exploring ways to re-open.
See our Hugh Falconer timeline.
Roy Williamson
25 June 1936 – 12 August 1990
Roy Williamson was a Scottish songwriter and folk musician, most notably with The Corries. Williamson is best known for writing “Flower of Scotland”, which has become the unofficial national anthem of Scotland used at international sporting events. Although not born in Forres, he spent his school years in the area.
As a schoolboy, Williamson learned to play the recorder by ear, pretending to read music. A teacher found out and banned him from music lessons. He went to Wester Elchies School, then Aberlour House and Gordonstoun, near Lossiemouth. He taught seamanship and navigation at Burghead before going to Edinburgh College of Art. It was there in 1955 that he met Ronnie Browne, with whom he would team up in The Corries.
He lived his adult life in Edinburgh, but moved back to Forres in the eighties, and died of a brain tumour on 12 August 1990.
Macbeth
c1005 – 1057
In 1040, Macbeth killed the young ruling king of Alba, Duncan I, in a battle and became King of Alba (Scotland)
Little is known about his early life, and much of his real life is obscured by the popular Shakespeare play, which depicts him largely as an evil man.
Macbeth was by all accounts a good king, and as well as being king, he was a ‘mormaer’ of Moray, and there are many references to his presence in Forres. West of the town, Macbeth’s Hillock is thought to be where three witches gathered to foretell his doom. Forres is mentioned in Shakespeare’s play, and it is thought he visited the castle when it was habitable.
He was killed in battle in 1057.
As a result, Forres folk consider him one of their own.
James Smith
c. 1645–1731
James Smith was a Scottish architect, born in the Highlands, but later became a burgess of Forres.
He pioneered the Palladian style of architecture in Scotland. He was described by Colen Campbell, in his Vitruvius Britannicus (1715–1725), as “the most experienced architect of that kingdom”.
Smith was generally identified as “James Smith of Morayshire” who attended the Scots College, Rome from 1671–75, initially with the aim of entering the Catholic priesthood, although some scholars are cautious about the certainty of this identification He had certainly travelled abroad, however, and was well-educated, with a knowledge of Latin.
He was responsible for maintenance of Holyrood Palace, and refurbished the former Holyrood Abbey as a chapel royal for King James VII. From 1685–86 he sat in the Parliament of Scotland as member for Forres.
Smith fathered 18 children by his first wife, Janet Mylne, who died in 1699, aged 37. He remarried, and fathered another 14 children by his second wife.
Lieutenant-Colonel Colquhoun Grant
1 September 1780–28 September 1829
Born in Forres, Colqhoun Grant was thr youngest of eight brothers from a family of the Scots aristocracy,
He was commissioned into the 11th Foot in 1795, reaching the rank of major by 1809 when he was posted to the Iberian Peninsula during the Peninsular War under the command of Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington. In 1810 he was appointed to Wellesley’s personal staff as an Exploring Officer in the Peninsula Corps of Guides, a special reconnaissance unit whose members spoke the local languages.
He is sometimes known as Britain’s first spy, although he never thought of himself as a spy, and always rode in full uniform, often behind enemy lines, to note the positions and strength of the enemy.
Grant was captured by French forces on 16 April 1812. As he was in uniform, he was treated as an officer and gentleman by his captors, who offered him parole, which Grant accepted. His servant Leon, a local guide, was not so fortunate, and was shot. Grant was invited to dine with Marshal Auguste de Marmont, who hoped to find out more about Wellington, and who was angered by Grant’s reticence. Marmont had good reason to remain suspicious of Grant, as the latter managed to send and receive secret messages while in captivity.
Marmont sent Grant to Paris for interrogation. It is clear from Marmont’s correspondence that he had no intention of exchanging Grant for a prisoner of equal rank, as was the custom of the time, considering him to be a spy. Grant, on seeing a copy of Marmont’s letter, decided that it invalidated his parole agreement and escaped.
Grant was able to pass himself off as an American officer and spent some weeks at liberty in the streets and salons of Paris, sending intelligence reports to Wellington. He then escaped to England, rejoining Wellington in early 1814. Promoted to lieutenant-colonel, he was appointed commanding officer of the Corps of Guides and Head of Intelligence for the Peninsular Army.
James Dick
c. 1743 – c. 1828
James Dick was a Scottish merchant, philanthropist and slave trader.
Born in Forres, Dick left Scotland at the age of 19 and travelled to the West Indies, settling down in Kingston, Jamaica as a clerk in a local merchant house. In Jamaica, he established his own business importing enslaved people and exporting local produce to London, in the process becoming immensely wealthy.
James Dick’s father, Alexander, was a shoemaker who sat on the Forres town council. Dick grew up in a house on Forres High Street, and studied at a grammar school in Rafford while herding cattle during the summer break. Alexander employed him as his bookkeeper; while in this position, he fell in love with the family’s domestic servant and desired to marry her. Due to his parents’ objections, Dick left Scotland in 1762 at the age of 19 and travelled to the West Indies.
Dick returned to Britain and died c. 1828. Following his death, he bequeathed £113,787 to improve teaching among the schoolmasters in Scotland, which became known as the Dick Bequest. In recent years, the bequest has become controversial due to Dick’s involvement in the Atlantic slave trade.
And some are still living…
Marli Siu
11 March 1993 – present
Marli Siu is a Scottish actress whose films include Anna and the Apocalypse (2017), Our Ladies (2019), and Run (2019), the latter of which won her a Scottish BAFTA. On television, Siu has appeared in the spy thriller Alex Rider (2020–2024) and the BBC drama Everything I Know About Love (2022).
Siu was born on 11 March 1993 and lived in Lamma Island, Hong Kong until she was four years old, before moving to and growing up in Forres in Moray, north-east Scotland. She attended Forres Academy. Her mother is Scottish from Edinburgh and her father was Chinese. She has four sisters.
Siu attended a youth theatre group in Elgin and joined the National Youth Theatre] and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Acting and English Literature from Edinburgh Napier University.