John Forbes may refer to:
Science
John Forbes (botanist) (1799–1823), English botanist John Forbes (physician) (1787–1861), Scottish physician John Ripley Forbes (1913–2006), American naturalist and conservationist
Military
John Forbes (British Army officer) (1707–1759), British general in the French and Indian War John Forbes (Portuguese general) (1733–1808), Scottish general in the Portuguese service John Forbes (Royal Navy officer) (1714–1796), British admiral and politician John Morrison Forbes (1925–2021), British admiral
Religion
John Forbes (friar) (1571–1606), Scottish Capuchin friar John Forbes (Gaelic scholar) (1818–1863), Scottish minister and Gaelic translator John Forbes (Alford minister) (c. 1568–1634), Scottish minister exiled by James VI and I John Forbes (theologian, born 1593) (1593–1648), Scottish theologian; one of the six "Aberdeen doctors" John Forbes (minister of St Paul's, Glasgow) (1800-25 December 1874) Scottish mathematician and minister
Politics and law
John Forbes, 4th of Culloden (c. 1673–1734), Scottish member of the British Parliament for Inverness-shire, 1715–1722 John Forbes (1801–1840), British Member of Parliament and East India Company director John Forbes (Iowa politician) (born 1956), Iowa State Representative John Hay Forbes, Lord Medwyn (1776–1854), Scottish judge John Murray Forbes (diplomat) (1771–1831), American diplomat John W. Forbes II, American government official in Virginia
Sports John Forbes (cricketer) (1931–2017), South African cricketer John Forbes (footballer) (1862–1928), Scottish footballer John Forbes (sailor) (born 1970), Australian Olympian sailor John Forbes (rugby union), Scottish international rugby union player
Business John Forbes and Company, the British firm of John Forbes (1767–1823) and his brother Thomas (†1808), a trading company active in the southeastern United States and India, from 1804 to 1847 John Murray Forbes (1813–1898), American banker and railroad president John Malcolm Forbes (1847–1904), American businessman, yachtsman and horseman
Other people
John Forbes (architect) (1795?–?), British architect John Forbes (poet) (1950–1998), Australian poet John Forbes, 6th Lord Forbes (died 1547), Scottish landowner John Forbes, 8th Lord Forbes (1542–1606), Scottish aristocrat John J. Forbes, American mining engineer John Stuart Hepburn Forbes, Scottish baronet, landowner, advocate and agriculturalist