Sir Richard Burn (1 February 1871 – 26 July 1947) was an English civil servant in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, historian of India and

numismatist A numismatist is a specialist in numismatics ("of coins"; from Late Latin ''numismatis'', genitive of ''numisma''). Numismatists include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholars who use coins and other currency in object-based research. Altho ...

."BURN, Sir Richard", in ''

Who Was Who ''Who's Who'' is a reference work. It is a book, and also a CD-ROM and a website, giving information on influential people from around the world. Published annually as a book since 1849, it lists people who influence British life, according to i ...

'',

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, online edition,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014. He was the editor of Volume IV of ''

The Cambridge History of India ''The Cambridge History of India'' was a major work of historical scholarship published in five volumes between 1922 and 1937 by Cambridge University Press. Some volumes were also part of ''The Cambridge History of the British Empire''. Production ...

'' and contributed four chapters to Volume VI of that work on the Indian political situation after 1900.

Early life

Burn was born in Liverpool, educated at the

Liverpool Institute The Liverpool Institute High School for Boys was an all-boys grammar school in the English port city of Liverpool. The school had its origins in 1825 but occupied different premises while the money was found to build a dedicated building on ...

, then at Christ Church College, University of Oxford.

Career in India

Burn entered the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million ...

in 1891.Hayavadana Rao, C. (Ed.) (1915
''The Indian biographical dictionary 1915''.
Madras: Pillar & Co., pp. 72–73. At Wikisource. He became Under-Secretary to the Government of the United Provinces in 1897, Superintendent of the Census 1900, and of the '' Imperial Gazetteer'' in 1902, and editor in 1905. He was Secretary to the Government of the United Provinces, and member of the Legislative Council, from 1910 (Chief Secretary, 1912). He became a Commissioner in 1918 and member of the Board of Revenue, United Provinces, in 1922. In 1926 he was Acting Finance Member. Burn retired in 1927. Burn was awarded the Kaiser-i-Hind gold medal for famine services in India in 1907–08, and

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in 1927.

''The Imperial Gazetteer of India''

Burn was the third editor in India of the new edition of ''

The Imperial Gazetteer of India ''The Imperial Gazetteer of India'' was a gazetteer of the British Indian Empire, and is now a historical reference work. It was first published in 1881. Sir William Wilson Hunter made the original plans of the book, starting in 1869.< ...

'', replacing

William Stevenson Meyer Sir William Stevenson Meyer (13 February 1860 – 19 October 1922) was an Indian Civil Service officer. From 1920 until his death two years later, he served as the first High Commissioner for India. Biography Meyer was born to a Presbyterian min ...

who had himself replaced Sir Herbert Risley, both of whom had been promoted to more senior positions. The ''Gazetteer'' was published in 26 volumes at Oxford from 1909. The first edition had been published in 1881 and the second in 1885–87. In a paper read before the Indian Section of

The Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

in 1908, Burn described the great efforts that had been made to improve on earlier editions of the ''Gazetteer'', including a vastly expanded contents and the inclusion of a detailed atlas. He reported that it had taken years of discussion to settle the form of the work:

Numismatics

Burn was a knowledgeable numismatist, producing papers on the subject that were published in the ''

Numismatic Chronicle The Royal Numismatic Society (RNS) is a learned society and charity based in London, United Kingdom which promotes research into all branches of numismatics. Its patron was Queen Elizabeth II. Membership Foremost collectors and researchers, bo ...

'' and the journals of the

Royal Asiatic Society The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the en ...

and the

Asiatic Society of Bengal The Asiatic Society is a government of India organisation founded during the Company rule in India to enhance and further the cause of "Oriental research", in this case, research into India and the surrounding regions. It was founded by the p ...

. He was a founder member, in 1910, of the

Numismatic Society of India The Numismatic Society of India (NSI) is the foremost numismatic society in India. It was founded in 1910 by a group of (mainly) expatriate Englishmen associated with British rule in India. The founding members were Rev. G.P. Taylor, Sir Richard B ...

.Numismatic Society of India
Banars Hindu University, 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014.

Selected publications

*''Census report of the United Provinces''. 1902. *
The Imperial Gazetteer of India
'. 3rd edition. Clarendon Press, Oxford, from 1909. (Editor) *''The Cambridge History of India Vol. IV The Mughul period''. University Press, Cambridge, 1937. Planned by Wolseley Haig, edited by Richard Burn. *
The Cambridge History of India Vol. VI. The Indian Empire, 1858–1918. With chapters on the development of administration, 1818–1858
'. 1932. Edited by H.H. Dodwell. Four chapters by Richard Burn.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burn, Richard 1871 births 1947 deaths Writers from Liverpool English Indologists People educated at Liverpool Institute High School for Boys Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Companions of the Order of the Star of India Indian Civil Service (British India) officers British administration in Uttar Pradesh Recipients of the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal Knights Bachelor