GURDON, Philip Richard Thornhagh. Murree, Punjab (not Bengal) 2.2.1863 — Totnes, Devon28.12.1942. Sir. British Colonial Officer and Ethnographist in India. Son of Major-General Evelyn Pulteney Gurdon (1833–1921) and Jane Mary Sandeman. Educated at Charterhouse and Sandhurst, entered army as Lieutenant in 1882. Major and Superintendent of Ethnography in Assam (1907), then Lieutenant-Colonel and the Officiating Commissioner of the Assam Valley, and Honorary Director of Ethnography in Assam (1914). In retirement returned to England. Married Ada McNaught (1870–1953), two sons and one daughter.

Publications: Some Assamese Proverbs. 98 p. Shillong 1896, 2nd ed. 1903.

– Edited with H. Gosain: H. Barua’s Hema Kosha, or an Etymological Dictionary of the Assamese Language. 984 p. 1900.

– The Khasis. 28+227 p. L. 1907, rev. ed. 1914.

– “The Khasis and the Austric Theory”, JRAS 1907, 743-748.

– “The origin of the Ahoms”, JRAS 1913, 283-287.

– Articles in the E.R.E., JASB, etc.

Sources: F.C. Crisp (ed.), Visitation of England and Wales. 10. 1902, 195; life years in janus.lib.cam.ac.uk; stray notes in Internet.