Sir Sidney Gerald Burrard, 7th Baronet, (12 August 1860 – 16 March 1943) was a British army officer who served as

Surveyor General of India The Surveyor General of India is the Head of Department of Survey of India, A department under the Ministry of Science and Technology of Government of India. The Surveyor General is also the most senior member of the Survey of India Service, an o ...

and played a major role in the

Great Trigonometrical Survey The Great Trigonometrical Survey was a project that aimed to survey the entire Indian subcontinent with scientific precision. It was begun in 1802 by the British infantry officer William Lambton, under the auspices of the East India Company.Gi ...

's work in the Himalayas and identified the source of errors resulting from the displacement of the plumbline by the mountains.

Early life

Burrard was born on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

in a family of eminence, his father being Lieutenant-Colonel Sidney Burrard of the Grenadier Guards. Their home at The Mount had been built by his grandfather, The Reverend Sir George Burrard. He was educated at school in

Lymington Lymington is a port town on the west bank of the Lymington River on the Solent, in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England. It faces Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, to which there is a car ferry service operated by Wightlink. It is within the ...

and then

Uppingham School Uppingham School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils 13-18) in Uppingham, Rutland, England, founded in 1584 by Robert Johnson, the Archdeacon of Leicester, who also established Oakham School. The headma ...

from 1873 where he showed his mathematical talents. In 1874 he moved to Wellington College where again he excelled at mathematics which led his father to decide that he was suited for the Royal Engineers.

Career

He received a commission in the Royal Engineers on 6 April 1879 and trained at the School of Military Engineering at Chatham. He sailed to India in 1882. He joined the

Bengal Sappers and Miners Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

at Roorkee and then joined the

Zhob Zhob (; ) or Zhobak (), formerly known as Appozai or Fort Sandeman, is a city and district capital of Zhob District in Balochistan province of Pakistan. Zhob is located on the banks of Zhob River 337 km from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan. T ...

valley expedition in Baluchistan. In 1884 he joined the Survey of India after a contemporary W.H. Pollen, who was posted as Aide-de-camp to the Viceroy, heard that there was a position for a young Royal Engineer who was good at mathematics and recommended Burrard's name to

Lord Ripon George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon, (24 October 1827 – 9 July 1909), styled Viscount Goderich from 1833 to 1859 and known as the Earl of Ripon in 1859 and as the Earl de Grey and Ripon from 1859 to 1871, was a British p ...

. Burrard worked at

Dehra Dun Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislativ ...

under J.B.N. Hennessey and C.T. Haig. Working with Heaviside and Strahan, he examined the causes of minute triangulation errors. These they determined by experiments as being caused by the attraction of the plumbline to the Himalayan mountains. This was further analysed by

John Henry Pratt John Henry Pratt FRS (4 June 1809 – 28 December 1871) was a British clergyman, astronomer and mathematician. A Cambridge Apostle, he joined the British East India Company in 1838 as a chaplain and later became Archdeacon of Calcutta. Although ...

. In 1887 Burrard married Gertrude Ellen the daughter of the Superintendent of the Trigonometrical Survey, Major-General C.T. Haig. Burrard went on furlough in 1890 to England where his wife, an artist, spent time to study painting. During this time Burrard worked on a family genealogy. Burrard later worked at a tidal observatory on the Red Sea. In 1899 he was appointed Superintendent of the Trigonometrical Survey and became a Surveyor General in 1908. He was made a

Companion of the Order of the Star of India The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1861. The Order includes members of three classes: # Knight Grand Commander (GCSI) # Knight Commander ( KCSI) # Companion ( CSI) No appointments ...

(CSI) in 1911, and promoted to

Knight Commander Commander ( it, Commendatore; french: Commandeur; german: Komtur; es, Comendador; pt, Comendador), or Knight Commander, is a title of honor prevalent in chivalric orders and fraternal orders. The title of Commander occurred in the medieval mili ...

of the Order of the Star of India (KCSI) in 1914. In 1913 he received the Victoria Medal from the Royal Geographical Society. Burrard helped to organized the Indian Science Congress. He left India in 1919 and retired to Farnborough. Lady Burrard died in 1928. He succeeded his cousin as the 7th baronet on 1933 and in 1935 he married Alice Simons but she died in 1938. They had a son and a daughter. The son, later Major Sir Gerald Burrard (1888 – 1965) was a specialist on firearms and was involved in the creation of the Firearms Act 1936. Depressed and with a weakening eyesight, Burrard died in 1943.

References

External links

A sketch of the geography and geology of the Himalaya Mountains and Tibet (1907)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burrard, Sidney Gerald Surveyors General of India 1860 births 1943 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain Fellows of the Royal Society Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India Royal Engineers officers British surveyors Victoria Medal recipients