Andrew Sinclair (botanist)

Andrew Sinclair was a British surgeon, born in Paisley, Scotland, in April 1794 and died in March 1861, who is remembered chiefly for his botanical collections. He studied medicine at Glasgow, spent a year training as a surgeon at the Hôpital de la Charité in Paris, and took his Doctor of Medicine at Edinburgh in 1818. He joined the Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon in 1822 and became a surgeon in 1829, serving on HMS Owen Glendower and later on the surveying voyage of HMS Sulphur, and he sent plants and zoological specimens to the British Museum and Kew. Poor health brought him home in 1839, after which he worked as a surgeon on convict ships to Australia. In New Zealand he accepted the post of Colonial Secretary in 1844 under Governor Robert FitzRoy, becoming the colony's second holder of that office.