Sir Henry Charles Burdett (18 March 1847 – 29 April 1920) was an English financier and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

Henry Charles Burdett Vanity Fair 14 July 1898

Biography

He was born at

Broughton, Northamptonshire Broughton is a large village and civil parish in North Northamptonshire, England. The village is around south-west of Kettering and is bypassed by the A43 road. At the 2011 census, the population of the parish was 2,208. The village's name is ...

, the son of the Reverend Halford Burdett, a

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

clergyman, and his wife Alsina. In 1863 he started his business career as a bank clerk in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, and was soon in charge of the local clearing at the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...

, where his

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...

abilities became evident. In 1868 Burdett became secretary and general superintendent of the

Queen's Hospital, Birmingham Birmingham Accident Hospital, formerly known as Birmingham Accident Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre, was established in April 1941 as Birmingham's response to two reports, the British Medical Association's Committee on Fractures (1935) and th ...

. In 1873 he enrolled there as a medical student, transferring later to Guy's Hospital, London. Later, between 1874 and 1880 he was secretary to the Dreadnought Seaman's Hospital. In 1880 he became secretary to the share and loan department of the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

and also a member of the committee of management of the Seamen's Hospital Society. Finance and hospitals, especially in connection with nursing, were the two main interests of his life. He helped to establish the

British Hospitals Association The British Hospitals Association was established by Henry Burdett in 1884. In 1887 it established a register of trained nurses for those who could show that they had worked for at least a year in a hospital or an infirmary and had been trained in ...

in 1884. An important enlargement of the Stock Exchange was opened in January 1885, the addition being made of what is still called the New House. Three years before, in 1882, ''Burdett's Official Intelligence of Securities'', the Stock Exchange encyclopaedia, had appeared for the first time. It had a precursor in ''The Railway Intelligence'', and in 1899 its title was altered to ''The Stock Exchange Official Intelligence'', the alteration not being without significance. Burdett's ''Hospitals and Charities'' appeared annually from 1889 and continued until the 1990s as the ''Health Services Year Book''. He was made K.C.B. in the

1897 Diamond Jubilee Honours The Diamond Jubilee Honours for the British Empire were announced on 22 June 1897 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria on 20 June 1897. The recipients of honours are displayed here as they were styled before their new honour, and ar ...

. He retired from the Stock Exchange in 1898. He died in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Publications

*''Hospitals and Asylums of the World'' (4 vols. with plates, London, 1892) *''Burdett's Hospitals and Charities'' (year book of philanthropy) * ''The Stock Exchange'' Burdett owned the

Scientific Press Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

and was founder and editor of the journal ''The Hospital''.

References

* 1841 Census 1734 f73 p3

External links

* English bankers Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath 1847 births 1920 deaths British medical administrators {{UK-business-bio-stub