author
William Wilson Hunter
1840–1900
A Scottish historian and Indian Civil Service official, he became one of the great compilers of British India, turning statistics, geography, and history into books that shaped how the empire described itself. He is best known for the vast Imperial Gazetteer of India and for writing clear, ambitious accounts of Indian history and public life.
1 Audiobook
Rulers of India: The Earl of Mayo
by William Wilson Hunter
About the author
Born in Glasgow on July 15, 1840, William Wilson Hunter studied at Glasgow, Paris, and Bonn before joining the Indian Civil Service in the early 1860s. His work in India drew him toward large-scale research and documentation, and he developed a reputation as a gifted historian, statistician, and organizer of information.
Hunter's name is most closely linked with the Imperial Gazetteer of India, an enormous reference project that gathered data on places, peoples, and administration across the subcontinent. He also wrote works on Bengal, Indian history, and imperial policy, helping shape how India was presented to British readers in the late nineteenth century.
He was later honored with distinctions including KCSI and CIE, and he died on February 6, 1900. Today he is remembered less as a novelist or stylist than as a tireless builder of reference works—someone who tried to map an entire world in print.