Hugh Falconer | Visit Forres

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“.

Six years after his death, the Falconer Museum was founded in Tolbooth Street, Forres

Hugh’s older brother, Alexander, also bequeathed £1000 to help establish the museum, and it was named in their honour Hugh is buried in Kensal Green Cemeteray, London, and Alexander in St Laurence Church cemetery, Forres.

Unfortunately, the museum is currently closed due to council funding cuts, but it is exploring ways to re-open.

Hugh Falconer timeline

1797 – Alexander Falconer born in Forres
1808 – Hugh Falconer born in Forres, and educated at Forres Grammar School
1826 – Graduated MA at University of Aberdeen
1829 – Graduated MD at Edinburgh University
1830 – Arrived in Calcutta
1831 – Ordered to Meerut
1832 – Falconer became superintendent of the botanic gardens at Saháranpur. From 1832 onwards the ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal’ and ‘Asiatic Researches’ contained numerous memoirs on discoveries of Falconer and his friend Sir Prob Cautley. By the labours of Falconer, Cautley, and Lieuts. Sir W E Baker and Sir H Durand, a vertebrate fossil fauna was brought to light, unexampled for extent and richness in any region then known.
1834 – Under Falconer’s advice experiments were conducted to grow tea in India. The first tea was manufactured under him, and the produce declared equal to the best China tea.
1837–8 – Visited Cashmere.
1839 – A new genus Falconeria was named after him.
1838 – Falconer crossed the mountains to Iskardoh in Balkistan, and traced the Shiggur branch of the Indus to its source, examining the great glaciers of Arindoh and of the Braldoh valley, and returning to Cashmere by the valley of Astore. In the latter he discovered the assafœtida plant of commerce, which he was the first to describe. During his stay in Cashmere, although interrupted by prolonged illness, Falconer sent to the Saháranpur gardens 650 grafted plants, including all the most valuable fruit trees.
1840 – Falconer’s health gave way after frequent severe attacks
1842 – He returned to England on sick leave, bringing with him 70 large chests of dried plants and five tons of fossil bones, some of these went to the museum in Forres.
1856 – Alexander Falconer dies with a will bequeathing £1,000 be used to establish a ‘public museum in Forres for objects of art and science, inclusive of a library and lecture room’. He was buried in St Laurence cemetary.
1865 – Hugh Falconer died of acute rheumatism, and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetary, London.
1872 – Falconer Museum opens on 1 August in Hugh and Alexander’s name.
1975 – The management of The Falconer Museum was transferred from The Falconer Museum Trust to Moray District Council.
1996 – Moray Council assumed full ownership of the building and its contents in return for a legal transfer of the Museum building and collections.
2020 – Falconer Museum was closed to the public. Trustees of the museum fight for a solution to reopen.
2022 – Friends of Falconer Museum celebrate museum’s 150th anniversary