Richard Burn

Sir Richard Burn (1 February 1871 – 26 July 1947) was an English civil servant in British India, historian of India and numismatist. 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, then at Christ Church College, University of Oxford. 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.

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:

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.

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.