Martin Onslow Forster
Sir Martin Onslow Forster (8 November 1872 – 24 May 1945) was a British chemist who led the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India. He was born in London as one of four children. He studied chemistry at Finsbury Technical College and then did research with notable chemists in Würzburg, earning his PhD in 1892. He returned to Britain to work at several institutions, including the Royal College of Science and the University of London, and he studied camphor with support from the Salters’ Company.
In 1913 he left academia to try politics, but returned to industry in 1914 as a consultant for the dye industry. He led the technical committee for British Dyes Limited in 1915 and became its director in 1916. After some difficulties, he left the company and joined the Salters’ Institute of Industrial Chemistry, where he did experiments at the Davy-Faraday Laboratories. He was a strong speaker but not seen as an easy leader, and was considered aloof and unpopular in Britain.
His career in India was more successful. On the recommendation of Sir W.J. Pope, he became director of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. He earned respect for his administration and retired in 1927 with a knighthood, though he stayed on at the Institute until 1933 before moving to Mysore. He was married twice—Madeleine Nichols (1907, divorced 1916) and Elena Josefina (1925). He had no children and died in Mysore in 1945.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 16:53 (CET).