William Wilson Hunter (1840–1900)

Scottish administrator in India and historian. Studied in Glasgow, Paris, and Bonn. Assistant magistrate, Birbhum, Bengal, 1862. Published on Indian languages and history. Responsible for a statistical survey of India, 1869–81; appointed director-general of statistics to the government of India, 1871. Drew up the scheme for the Imperial gazetteer of India, supervised local editors and wrote the volumes on Bengal and Assam himself. Knighted, 1887.