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	==Early life==		==Early life==
	Burdon was born in [[North Ambersham]], [[Sussex]], England, on 4 August 1896 to Mildred and Cotsford Mathews Burdon. He emigrated to New Zealand with his family when he was six years old. His parents began sheep farming in Woodbury, in the [[Canterbury, New Zealand\|Canterbury]] region of the [[South Island]]. Educated at schools in or near [[Christchurch]], he was in England intending to study law when the [[First World War]] broke out.<ref name="DNZB Burdon">{{DNZB\|title=Randal Mathews Burdon\|first= Richard L. N.\|last= Greenaway\|id=4b49\|accessdate=23 April ~~2022~~}}</ref>		Burdon was born in [[North Ambersham]], [[Sussex]], England, on 4 August 1896 to Mildred and Cotsford Mathews Burdon. He emigrated to New Zealand with his family when he was six years old. His parents began sheep farming in Woodbury, in the [[Canterbury, New Zealand\|Canterbury]] region of the [[South Island]]. Educated at schools in or near [[Christchurch]], he was in England intending to study law when the [[First World War]] broke out.<ref name="DNZB Burdon">{{DNZB\|title=Randal Mathews Burdon\|first= Richard L. N.\|last= Greenaway\|id=4b49\|accessdate=23 April 2017}}</ref>

	==First World War==		==First World War==

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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox military person
|name= Randal Mathews Burdon
|image=
|image_size=
|alt=
|caption=
|nickname=
|birth_date= {{Birth date|df=yes|1896|8|4}}
|birth_place= [[North Ambersham]], [[Sussex]], England
|death_date= {{Death date and age|df=yes|1965|11|29|1896|8|4}}
|death_place= [[Wellington]], New Zealand
|placeofburial=
|allegiance=
|branch= [[British Army]]<br/>[[British Indian Army]]
|serviceyears= 1914–1918<br/>1919–1922
|rank= [[Captain (armed forces)|Captain]]
|servicenumber=
|unit=
|commands=
|battles= First World War
* [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]]
* [[Italian Campaign (World War I)|Italian Campaign]]
|awards=[[Military Cross]]
|laterwork=Historian
}}
'''Randal Mathews Burdon''' (4 August 1896 – 29 November 1965) was an English-born New Zealand historian with several works published from the 1930s to 1960s. He also served in the [[British Army]] in the [[First World War]].

==Early life==
Burdon was born in [[North Ambersham]], [[Sussex]], England, on 4 August 1896 to Mildred and Cotsford Mathews Burdon. He emigrated to New Zealand with his family when he was six years old. His parents began sheep farming in Woodbury, in the [[Canterbury, New Zealand|Canterbury]] region of the [[South Island]]. Educated at schools in or near [[Christchurch]], he was in England intending to study law when the [[First World War]] broke out.<ref name="DNZB Burdon">{{DNZB|title=Randal Mathews Burdon|first= Richard L. N.|last= Greenaway|id=4b49|accessdate=23 April 2022}}</ref>

==First World War==
Joining the [[British Army]], he was commissioned as a [[second lieutenant]]. Posted to the [[Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment]], he served on the [[Western Front (WWI)|Western Front]] and later in the [[Italian Campaign (World War I)|Italian Campaign]]. Wounded twice in the course of his war service,<ref name="DNZB Burdon"/> he was the recipient of a gallantry award, the [[Military Cross]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=30036|supp=y|page=3933|date=24 April 1917}}</ref> In October 1918, he transferred to the [[British Indian Army]] as a probationary lieutenant and was posted to a [[Pioneer (military)|pioneer]] unit the following month.<ref>Indian Army List, January 1919</ref> He transferred to the [[13th Duke of Connaught's Lancers]], which served on the north-west frontier of India,<ref name="DNZB Burdon"/> in June 1919 and received a promotion to [[Captain (armed forces)|captain]] in January 1920.<ref>Indian Army List, April 1920</ref>

==Writing career==
In 1922, Burdon, having married Jean Stewart Bowden two years before,<ref name="DNZB Burdon"/> retired from the Indian Army, still as a captain,<ref>Indian Army List, April 1923</ref> and returned to New Zealand. He took up sheep farming in Woodbury, where his family farmed after their arrival from England in 1902. He started writing history books in the 1930s and his first work, a history of farming in the Canterbury region, was published in 1938. A series of short accounts of notable New Zealanders, in three volumes, was followed by a biography of Sir [[Julius Vogel]]. He also wrote ''Outlaw's Progress'', a work of fiction published in 1943, which he later disavowed,<ref name="DNZB Burdon"/> describing it as a "damn bad novel".{{sfn|Stevens|1966|p=64}}

With his health in decline, in 1948 Burdon moved from his farm to [[Wellington]]. He was contracted by the War History Branch, the section of the [[Department of Internal Affairs (New Zealand)|Department of Internal Affairs]] tasked with the production of a history of New Zealand's contribution to the [[Second World War]], to produce an account of the [[24th Battalion (New Zealand)|24th Battalion]]. One of several volumes of the ''[[Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–45]]'', his book was published in 1953 and was followed two years later with a biography of [[Richard Seddon]]. A study of the Christchurch academic, [[Alexander Bickerton]], was produced the next year. Having already had to resort to walking with the assistance of a cane for several years, his research abilities were becoming compromised by his physical condition, which affected his abilities to undertake serious archival work. In 1965, he produced ''The New Dominion'', a social history of New Zealand from 1919 to 1939, but critics noted it was heavily based on newspapers and secondary sources.<ref name="DNZB Burdon"/>

In his later years, Burdon contributed to a number of journals and was a book reviewer for the weekly ''[[New Zealand Listener]]''. He was a contributor to the publication ''[[An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand]]'', which was printed after his death at home from coal gas poisoning on 28–29 November 1965. Although it produced two children, both of whom survived him, his marriage to Jean Bowden had ended in a divorce in 1932.<ref name="DNZB Burdon"/>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*{{cite book|last1=Stevens|first1=Joan|title=The New Zealand Novel 1860–1965|date=1966|publisher=Reed Publishing|location=Auckland|oclc= 974332558}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burdon, Randal Mathews}}
[[Category:1896 births]]
[[Category:1965 deaths]]
[[Category:New Zealand farmers]]
[[Category:20th-century New Zealand historians]]
[[Category:British emigrants to New Zealand]]
[[Category:New Zealand military personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:British Indian Army officers]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Military Cross]]

Randal Mathews Burdon - Revision history

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