British statesman
Born 1822 Died 1872
Richard Southwell Bourke, son of Robert Bourke, the 5th Earl (1797-1867), was born in Dublin on the 21st of February, 1822, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. After travelling in Russia he entered parliament, and sat successively for Kildare, Coleraine and Cockermouth. He was Chief Secretary for Ireland in three administrations, in 1852, 1858 and 1866, and was appointed Viceroy of India in January 1869. He consolidated the frontiers of India and met Shere Ali, Amir of Afghanistan, in durbar at Umballa in March 1869. His reorganization of the finances of the country put India on a paying basis; and he did much to promote irrigation, railways, forests and other useful public works. Visiting the convict settlement at Port Blair in the Andaman Islands, for the purpose of inspection, the viceroy was assassinated by a convict on the 8th of February 1872. His successor was his son, Dermot Robert Wyndham Bourke (b. 1851) who became 7th Earl of Mayo.
See Sir W. W. Hunter, Life of the Earl of Mayo, (1876), and The Earl of Mayo in the Rulers of India Series (1891).
Being the entry for MAYO, RICHARD SOUTHWELL BOURKE, 6TH EARL OF in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, the text of which lies within the public domain.