Frederick Chalmers Bourne


Sir Frederick Chalmers Bourne was an English colonial administrator who served in British India until 1947 and then in the new Dominion of Pakistan until 1950.

Early life

Frederick Chalmers Bourne was born on 12 August 1891. He studied in Rugby and finished his masters in Christ Church, Oxford. His father was Frederick Samuel Augustus Bourne, a British consular official in China and later Judge of the British Supreme Court for China and Japan.

Career

Bourne was commissioned into the British Army in 1910, and served in the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment. In 1920 he joined the Indian Civil Service and held several prominent positions in the administrations of Lahore and the Punjab between 1937 and 1945. He was appointed acting Governor of the Central Provinces and Berar from May to October 1945, and as the acting Governor of Assam in 1946. He became the last Governor of the Central Provinces and Berar in 1946, serving until independence of India on 15 August 1947. Bourne then became the first Governor of Pakistan's East Bengal, and served until 5 April 1950.