Robert Lightbody (22 January 1802 – 5 July 1874) was a British amateur geologist and member of the Ludlow Natural History Society.

In 1852, after a short return to the Liverpool area[6] he moved to Castle Square House, Ludlow,[7] the substantial residential property which he eventually purchased and settled in with his family until his death.

His name appears as an attendee at almost all of the AGMs, and he is often one of the few members listed as present when meetings were cancelled or postponed due to insufficient numbers.

Salter records that Lightbody was responsible for discovering the earliest known Pteraspid in the Welsh Borders, Archaegonaspis ludensis.

[12] Lightbody published several articles based upon his geological research, including The Geology of Ludlow,[10] Remarks on Mr Roberts' Paper on Cephalaspis,[13] Notice of a Section at Mocktree,[14] Passage Beds at Downton[15], and A Sketch of Geological Time,[16] Lightbody was involved in a legal dispute with one of his neighbours in 1868,[17] in which he accused Chaplin Hodges, the owner of a local iron foundry, of attempting to undermine his Castle Square House property in Ludlow using explosives.