RICHARDSON, David Thomas. Langholm, Dumfriesshire 176? — on sea ?.11.1808. British (Scottish) Colonial Officer in India. Son of Gilbert Richardson (1722–1783) and Susanna Scott (d. 1775). Like several of his brothers he went to India as cadet in 1779. Learned soon Persian and Hindustani. In 1799 came to England accompanied by Mirza Abu Taleb Khan, a Persian scholar of Oudh. In 1800 married Violet Oliver and 1801 returned to India to set up the new staff college at Barasat (Bengal). In 1805-07 Military Secretary of Governor-General Barlow. In 1808 decided to retire. Lieutenant-Colonel. Perished in a hurricane with his family (wife and three young children) in Indian Ocean aboard of the Lord Nelson on way back to the U.K.
Publications: “An Account of the Bazeegurs, a sect commonly denominated Nuts”, As. Res. 7, 1801, 8° repr. 1803, 451-480 (Naṭ or Bāzīgar, a North Indian acrobat caste, speaking sort of Hindī, with a ‘Nut-Hindustani-English vocabulary’).
Sources: T. Willasey-Wilsey in http://www.victorianweb.org/history/empire/india/37.html; Wikipedia.
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