Robert Brown (December 21, 1773 - June 10, 1858) is acknowledged as the leading British botanist to collect in Australia during the first half of the 19th century.
Brown was born in Montrose, Scotland. He studied medicine and joined the army as a surgeon in 1795. He was one of the scientists who accompanied Matthew Flinders on his historic voyage to chart the coast of Australia, leaving Britain in December 1801 and ending in Sydney in June 1803. Brown stayed in Australia until May 1805. He published the results of his collecting in his famous Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae in 1810.
He succeeded Jonas C. Dryander as Sir Joseph Banks' librarian, and on Banks' death in 1820 inherited his library and herbarium. This was transferred to the British Museum in 1827, and Brown was appointed Keeper of the Banksian Botanical Collection. After the division of the Natural History Department into three sections in 1837 he became the first Keeper of the Botanical Department, remaining so until his death. He was succeeded by John Joseph Bennett.
Brown died at Soho Square in London.
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