Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Finlayson, George
FINLAYSON, GEORGE (1790–1823), naturalist and traveller, born of humble parents at Thurso in 1790, was clerk to Dr. Somerville, chief of the army medical staff in Scotland, and afterwards to Dr. Farrel, chief of the army medical staff in Ceylon, whence he was removed to Bengal, and attached to the 8th light dragoons as assistant-surgeon in 1819. In 1821-2 he accompanied the mission to Siam and Cochin China in the character of naturalist, returning with it to Calcutta in 1823. By this time his health was thoroughly broken, and he soon afterwards died. The journal which he had kept during the mission was edited, with a prefatory notice of the author, by Sir Stamford Raffles, F.R.S., under the title of 'The Mission to Siam and Hue, the capital of Cochin China, in the years 1821-2, from the Journal of the late George Finlayson, Esq.,' London. 1826, 8vo.
[Raffles's memoir, noticed above; Quarterly Review, 1826.]