William Cameron Forbes was an American investment banker and diplomat

Diplomat

A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...

. He served as Governor-General

Governor-General of the Philippines

The Governor-General of the Philippines was the title of the government executive during the colonial period of the Philippines, governed mainly by Spain and the United States, and briefly by Great Britain, from 1565 to 1935....

 of the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 from 1908 to 1913 and Ambassador of the United States to Japan from 1930 - 1932.

He was the son of William Hathaway Forbes, president of the Bell Telephone Company

Bell Telephone Company

The Bell Telephone Company, a common law joint stock company, was organized in Boston, Massachusetts on July 9, 1877 by Alexander Graham Bell's father-in-law Gardiner Greene Hubbard, who also helped organize a sister company — the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company...

, and wife Edith Emerson, a daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...

, nephew of James Grant Forbes

James Grant Forbes

James Grant Forbes was a Scottish-American businessman, a member of the Forbes family. He was the son of Francis Blackwell Forbes, the brother of William Hathaway Forbes and the husband of Isabel Clark....

 and grandson of Francis Blackwell Forbes

Francis Blackwell Forbes

Francis Blackwell Forbes was a China merchant, opium trader and botanist, son of Rev. John Murray Forbes, Rector of St. Luke's, New York and his wife Francis Blackwell Forbes (New York, August 11, 1839 - Boston, Massachusetts, May 2, 1908) was a China merchant, opium trader and botanist, son of...

. After graduating from Harvard in 1892, he embarked on a business career, eventually becoming a partner in J.