1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Burdett, Sir Henry

BURDETT, SIR HENRY (1847-1920), English economist and philanthropist, was born at Gilmorton, Leics., March 18 1847. He began life in a bank at Birmingham, but was elected in 1874 secretary to the Queen's hospital in that city. In 1880 he became secretary to the share and loan department of the Stock Exchange and also a member of the committee of management of the Seamen's Hospital Society. Finance and hospitals, especially in connexion with nursing, were the two main interests of his life. He published Burdett's Official Intelligence of Securities, and also Burdett's Hospitals and Charities, as well as works on the national debt, local taxation, The Hospitals and Asylums of the World (4 vols. with plates), and many other works on economic and hospital problems. It was largely due to him that King Edward VII. established his Hospital Fund for London. He also founded and edited The Hospital newspaper. He was created K.C.B. in 1897 and K.C.V.O. in 1908. He died in London April 29 1920.