the marble Hall of the Town Buildings of Bombay with a Soldier by the statue to Sir Charles Forbes by Sir Francis Chantrey

Sir Charles Edward Forbes, (1774-1849), was origianlly from Newe and Edinglassie in Aberdeenshire. Shortly after graduating from the University of Aberdeen, he left fom India and became head of the first large mecantile house in the eastern side of the Empire, called Forbes & Co. of Bombay. On returning to England, he was elected to parliament for the Borough of Beverly, from 1812 to 1818, when he moved to Malmesbury, which he continued to represent until the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832, of which he was a strong opponent. He was most distinguished in his connection with India. From his long residence in the East, he knew the people intimately and he spent a large portion of his fortune in their midst. In parliament and in the proprietors court of the East India Company, his advocacy of justice for India was ardent and untiring. His fame spread from one end of Hindestan to the other and twenty-seven years after his departure from Bombay, a statue was errected in his honour and which now stands in the town hall in Bombay. It was the first instance on record of the people of India raising a statue to anyone unconnected with the civil or military service of the country. On the death of his uncle in 1821, Forbes succeeded to the entailed estates of the Forbeses of Newe, and was created a Baronet by patent in 1823. He died in London, 20 November 1849.