James Staats Forbes was born on 7 March 1823 in Aberdeen, Scotland. He was the eldest of the six sons of James Staats Forbes and his wife Ann, née Walker.[1] He went to school in Woolwich, and in 1840 was taken on as a draughtsman in the office of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, at that time chief engineer of the Great Western Railway. In 1841 Forbes joined the Great Western as a clerk, and in a short time rose to goods manager.[1]
On 20 August 1851, Forbes married Ann Bennett; they had two sons and two daughters. She died in 1901.[1]
Career
In 1857 Forbes went to Holland to join the Dutch–Rhenish Railway, where he soon became general manager.[2] He was offered the position of general manager of the Great Western, but instead took over the failing London, Chatham and Dover Railway, then in receivership, where he was general manager and, from 1873, also chairman until in 1899 the company merged with the South Eastern Railway of Forbes's long-term rival, Sir Edward Watkin.[1][3]
Forbes was a keen connoisseur of art, and built up a huge collection, particularly of works of the Barbizon School,[5] works of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot[5] and of nineteenth-century Dutch painters.[1] He also had several paintings by James McNeill Whistler, including Blue and Silver: Boat Entering Pourville; Blue and Silver: Trouville; The Girl in Red; Grey and Brown: The Sad Sea Shore; Grey and Gold: High Tide at Pourville; Violet and Blue: The Red Feather and The Widow.[6] When he died, his collection included more than four thousand pictures and drawings, with a total value estimated at £220,000 or more.[7]: 39