Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/290

 war of 1882 with the contingent from India under Major-general (Sir) [q. v.]. The engineers were commanded by Sir James Browne known as 'Buster Browne' (1839–1896), and Burn-Murdoch and (Sir) William Gustavus Nicholson were the two field engineers. Reaching Bombay with his companions on 6 Aug., Burn-Murdoch aided Browne in preparing all the requisite material, and arrived at Suez, where they repaired the roads, local canals, and railways. From Ismailia they reached Kassassin on 11 Sept., and were present at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir on the 13th. Immediately afterwards Burn-Murdoch, with the Indian force, pushed on for some thirty miles to Zagazig, and took a foremost part in seizing the railway there, and General Browne sent a captured train back under Burn-Murdoch to help in the 72nd regiment, six miles off. The brilliant seizure of Zagazig, in which Burn-Murdoch did useful service, deprived the rebels of command of the railway and facilitated the capture of Cairo. He was mentioned in despatches and received the medal with clasp, fifth class of the Medjidieh, and Khedive's star. Burn-Murdoch was promoted captain on 2 May 1884, major on 6 Aug. 1891, and lieut.-colonel on 1 March 1900. Meanwhile he served in India on the state railways, and in 1893 became officer commanding engineer of state railways and subsequently was chief engineer of the Southern Mahratta railways. He retired on an Indian pension on 28 May 1900. He died at Bridge of Leith Cottage, Doune, Perthshire, on 30 Jan. 1909, and was buried in Old Kilmadoch burial ground. He married in August 1889 Maud (d. 1893), widow of William Forster. Burn-Murdoch left no issue. His wife had by her former husband three sons and a daughter.



BURNE, OWEN TUDOR (1837–1909), major-general, born at Plymouth on 12 April 1837, was eleventh child in a family of nineteen children of the Rev. Henry Thomas Burne (1799-1865), M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, by his wife Knightley Goodman (1805-1878), daughter of Captain Marriott, royal horse guards (blue). The father resigned orders in the Church of England in 1835 to join the 'Holy Catholic Apostolic Church,' founded by [q. v.]. To that church his children adhered. Owen's eldest brother was Col. Henry Burne, and another brother, Douglas (d. 1899), was manager of the bank of Bengal.

Educated at home by his father and at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, Owen received a commission in the 20th East Devonshire regiment (now the Lancashire fusiliers) on 15 May 1855. After some months at the depot at Parkhurst, Isle of Wight, Burne joined his regiment in the Crimea, in charge of a draft of 200 recruits, on 3 April 1856. Peace had just been proclaimed in London, and he returned home in July. After a year at Aldershot, he embarked with his regiment for India to assist in the suppression of the mutiny. On the voyage he studied Hindustani to good purpose.

On reaching Calcutta in November 1857 the regiment was ordered to Oudh to clear away the mutineers between Benares and Lucknow. Owing to his knowledge of Hindustani, Burne, who had been appointed adjutant of his regiment, was made brigade-major to Brigadier Evelegh, commanding a brigade in the 4th infantry division under Brigadier Franks. His first brush with the rebels was on 19 Feb. 1858 at Chunda, where guns were captured. After some hard fighting his division joined Sir Colin Campbell's army before Lucknow on 4 March, and established itself in outworks near the Dilkusha on the outskirts of the city, where it was exposed to a heavy fire. On 11 March Burne performed a feat of jallantry, for which he was recommended without result for promotion and the Victoria Cross. Communication was interrupted between the right and left attacks, and Burne, who was sent to ascertain the cause, Eound that the Nepalese troops had retired in a panic from their intermediate position, which had been occupied by the enemy; after bringing them back to the front as best he could, he made in safety a most perilous return journey. On 14 March, when Franks's division attacked the Kaisar Bagh and Imambara, the keys of the enemy's position, he was brigade-major of the column of attack, and was one of the first to get through the gate of the Kaisar Bagh. He was actively engaged until Lucknow fell on 21 March. Promoted lieutenant on 10 April 1858, le continued on the staff of Evelegh's Brigade in the vicinity of Lucknow, and was busy in clearing the country round