Hugh Francis Cleghorn

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Hugh Francis Cleghorn (1820–17 May 1895, Stravithie, Fifeshire) was a pioneering Scottish physician, botanist and forester who worked in India.

He was born at Madras in 1820, and educated at Edinburgh and St. Andrews. He became an MD in 1841 and went to India at the Madras General Hospital. He was interested in economic botany and took part in cataloguing the raw-products shown in the great Exhibition in 1851. He was influential in establishing the Forest Department in the Madras Presidency and his work led to the establishment of the Forest Department of India. With Sir Dietrich Brandis, he was the first Commissioner for the Conservancy of Forests. He later became an Inspector-General of Forests. He left India in 1869. He was instrumental in the establishment of Forestry in Edinburgh University.