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{{short description|English civil servant, Indologist, and numismatist}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2014}}
[[File:Sir Richard Burn 1871 - 1947.jpg|thumbnail|right|Sir Richard Burn, as photographed by [[Walter Stoneman]], 1940.]]
'''Sir Richard Burn''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CSI}} (1 February 1871 – 26 July 1947) was an English civil servant in [[British India]], historian of India and [[Numismatics|numismatist]].<ref name=who>"BURN, Sir Richard", in ''[[Who Was Who]]'', [[A & C Black]], online edition, [[Oxford University Press]], 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014.</ref> He was the editor of Volume IV of ''[[The Cambridge History of India]]'' 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 High School for Boys|Liverpool Institute]], then at [[Christ Church, Oxford|Christ Church College]], University of Oxford.<ref name=who />

== Career in India ==
Burn entered the [[Indian Civil Service]] in 1891.<ref name=IndBio>Hayavadana Rao, C. (Ed.) (1915) [https://archive.org/details/indianbiographic00raoc ''The Indian biographical dictionary 1915''.] Madras: Pillar & Co., pp. 72–73. [[s:The Indian Biographical Dictionary (1915)/Burn, Hon’ble Mr. Richard|At Wikisource.]]</ref> He became Under-Secretary to the Government of the [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|United Provinces]] in 1897, Superintendent of the Census 1900, and of the ''[[The Imperial Gazetteer of India|Imperial Gazetteer]]'' in 1902, and editor in 1905.<ref name=IndBio />

He was Secretary to the Government of the United Provinces, and member of the Legislative Council, from 1910 (Chief Secretary, 1912).<ref name=who /><ref name=IndBio /> 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.<ref name=who />

Burn was awarded the [[Kaisar-i-Hind Medal|Kaiser-i-Hind gold medal]] for famine services in India in 1907–08, and [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in 1927.<ref name=who />

== ''The Imperial Gazetteer of India'' ==
[[File:Map of the United Provinces from The Imperial Gazetteer of India (1907-1909).jpg|thumbnail|right|The United Provinces in 1909 in a map from ''The Imperial Gazetteer of India''.]]
Burn was the third editor in India of the new edition of ''[[The Imperial Gazetteer of India]]'', replacing [[William Stevenson Meyer]] who had himself replaced [[Herbert Hope Risley|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.<ref>[https://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/gazetteer/pager.html?objectid=DS405.1.I34_V01_004.gif "General Preface"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221203051800/https://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/gazetteer/pager.html?objectid=DS405.1.I34_V01_004.gif |date=3 December 2022 }} ''The Imperial Gazetteer of India: The Indian Empire, Vol. I Descriptive.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. v.</ref>

In a paper read before the Indian Section of [[The Royal Society of Arts]] 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:
{{quote|It is not my intention to weary you by detailing the numerous proposals and counter-proposals which followed the decision that a new revised gazetteer should be prepared. There is a story relating that a newcomer in the secretariat of the Government of India was appalled by the number of officials whom it was deemed necessary to consult regarding a certain file. In sending it on, he noted (whether ingenuously or with undue levity must not be enquired) that by some mistake the file had not yet been submitted for the opinion of the Bishop of Calcutta, though all other high officials had seen it.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41338107 | jstor=41338107 | title=The Imperial Gazetteer of India | last1=Burn | first1=Richard | journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Arts | date=1908 | volume=56 | issue=2884 | pages=364–373 }}</ref>}}

== Numismatics ==
Burn was a knowledgeable numismatist, producing papers on the subject that were published in the ''[[Numismatic Chronicle]]'' and the journals of the [[Royal Asiatic Society]] and the [[Asiatic Society of Bengal]].<ref name=who /> He was a founder member, in 1910, of the [[Numismatic Society of India]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20081223191452/http://www.bhu.ac.in/aihc/ins.htm Numismatic Society of India] Banars Hindu University, 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014. </ref>

== Selected publications ==
*''Census report of the United Provinces''. 1902.
*''[https://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/gazetteer/ 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.
*''[https://archive.org/details/cambridgehistory035143mbp 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 ==
{{Reflist}}

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

Richard Burn (Indologist) - Revision history

Tyrone73H144: Starting First Article Initial Version!