Reginald George Burton (1864 – 2 February 1951) was a

British Indian army The Indian Army was the force of British Raj, British India, until Indian Independence Act 1947, national independence in 1947. Formed in 1895 by uniting the three Presidency armies, it was responsible for the defence of both British India and ...

officer, hunter-naturalist and writer of books on sports hunting and military history. Burton was the fourth son of General Edmond Francis Burton of the

Madras Staff Corps The Indian Staff Corps was a branch of the Indian Army during the British Raj. Separate Staff Corps were formed in 1861 for the Bengal, Madras and Bombay Armies, which were later combined into the Indian Army. They were meant to provide officers f ...

and his wife Ellen Georgina. He too joined the army and served in Jamaica with the 1st West India Regiment from 1884 and moved to the

Bengal Staff Corps Bengal ( ) is a historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Bengal proper is divided between the modern-d ...

and then the 1st Infantry,

Hyderabad Contingent The Nizam's Contingent, later Hyderabad Contingent, was a British-officered army of the Nizam of Hyderabad. History The Nizam's Contingent was formed through the plan of Governor-General Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley to rid British ...

in 1889. He worked at Simla in the headquarters and then commanded the

94th Russell's Infantry The 94th Russell's Infantry were an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. They could trace their origins to 1813, when they were raised as the 1st Battalion of the Russell Brigade for the Princely state of Hyderabad. Until 1853, the regim ...

in 1909. He served at

Gallipoli The Gallipoli Peninsula (; ; ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east. Gallipoli is the Italian form of the Greek name (), meaning ' ...

in 1915 and was invalided, serving at Wellington in the Nilgiris. He retired to Cheltenham working as a manager at the Boys' Sunday Schools. While in India, he followed his father's interest in sport hunting. He was a member of the

Bombay Natural History Society The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), founded on 15 September 1883, is one of the largest non-governmental organisations in India engaged in conservation and biodiversity research. It supports many research efforts through grants and publ ...

and wrote several books on hunting including ''Tropics and Snows'' (1898), ''Sport and Wild Life in the Deccan'' (1928), ''A Book of man-eaters'' (1931), ''The Book of the Tiger'' (1933) and ''The Tiger Hunters'' (1936). He also wrote on military history including a ''History of the Hyderabad Contingent'' (1905), ''The First and Second Sikh Wars'' (1911), and ''From Boulogne to Austerlitz: Napoleon’s Campaign of 1805'' (1912). He married Elsie Mars, daughter of William Lumb in 1901 and they had a son who served in the RAF during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. His brother Lt. Col. R. W. Burton (1868-1963) was also a naturalist and member of the Bombay Natural History Society.

References

External links

Biography
* Tropics and Snow (1898) * The Book of the Tiger (1933) * The Tiger Hunters (1936)
From Boulogne to Austerlitz, Napoleon's campaign of 1805
(1912)
Wellington's campaigns in India
(1908) {{DEFAULTSORT:Burton, Reginald George 1864 births 1951 deaths Members of the Bombay Natural History Society British people in colonial India