Hyndman, George Crawford (1796–1867), amateur naturalist, was born 24 October 1796 in Belfast, the elder of at least two sons (one of whom died as a young man) and a daughter of James Hyndman (1761?–1825), merchant and public figure in Belfast, and Cherry Crawford, said to be from Cherryvale, Co. Monaghan. The family had trading links and relatives in the West Indies, as well as in the merchant classes of Belfast and Dublin. James's elder brother, Robert Hyndman (1750–1822), was active in commercial and public life and took censuses of Belfast (1782, 1791) that provide interesting information about the industrial growth of the town.
James became a woollen merchant, auctioneer, and public notary in Belfast, and was secretary of the masonic lodge known as the Orange Lodge. He was a captain in the Volunteers, a founding member of the committee of the Belfast Library and Society for Promoting Knowledge, and secretary of Belfast Annuity Society. He was one of the merchants who provided support for the radical newspaper, the Northern Star, and was secretary of the Belfast Society of United Irishmen, when it met in October 1792. Shortly before the rebellion of June 1798, for whatever reason, he did not join other merchants and local dignitaries in signing a published proclamation, in which they expressed their support for government.
George was educated at the Belfast Academy, and entered his father's business when he was 14. After James Hyndman died (10 May 1825), he took it over. His leisure time was devoted to Irish natural history, particularly to the study of marine fauna. He was a founder member (1821) of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society (BNHPS), a founder member of the Botanical and Horticultural Society (responsible for initiating the Belfast Botanical Gardens), and first president of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club (1863). He was a member of Belfast Dredging Committee; his study of the sea-floor deposits increased knowledge of the molluscs of Belfast Lough. He gave his important collection of shells to the museum of the BNHPS, and published some papers on marine life in the Transactions of the British Association. He was noted for his wide knowledge of natural history and for his assistance to all local cultural and scientific projects; in 1852 he sent specimens to Charles Darwin. Some of his material is described in S. A. Stewart and T. H. Corry, A flora of the north-east of Ireland (1888). Hyndman was president of the Belfast Literary Society (1840).
He died unmarried 18 December 1867, and was buried in the New Burying Ground, Belfast. A photograph is in the BNHPS centenary volume, facing p. 87.