{{Short description|British schoolmaster and philatelist (1863–1931)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2015}} {{Use British English|date=May 2015}} thumbnail|right|Repton School in 2007 '''Lawrence Arthur Burd''' FRHistS FRPSL (sometimes "Laurence"; 1 June 1863 – 12 April 1931)<ref name=Times>Obituaries: Mr. L.A. Burd. in ''The Times'', 9 May 1931, p. 14. Retrieved 9 May 2014.</ref> was a British public school schoolmaster, expert on the works of Niccolò Machiavelli, and also notable as a philatelist.
==Education and career== Burd was educated at Clifton College<ref>"Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J.A.O. p61: Bristol; J.W Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April, 1948</ref> under Dr. Percival and attended Balliol College, Oxford. He received his B.A. in 1885 and his M.A. in 1888.<ref>Messiter, G.S. (Mrs) (Ed.) [https://archive.org/stream/reptonschoolregi00messuoft#page/x/mode/2up/search/burd ''Repton School Register: Supplement to 1910 Edition'']. London, 1922, p. x.</ref> He spent a year travelling as a tutor to Lord Acton's son and in 1886 joined the teaching staff of Repton School where he stayed until he retired in 1923, becoming the Classical Sixth Form master.<ref name=Times/><ref name=LP>"Occasional Notes" in ''The London Philatelist'', Vol. 40, No. 472, April 1931, p. 88.</ref> He stocked, almost from scratch, the school library there, making it one of the best in the country,<ref name=Times/> and the Repton library building is still known as the Burd Library.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.repton.org.uk/MainFolder/Images/OR/18770%20Arch%20for%20WEB%202%20Nov.pdf-%20final.pdf|page=27|accessdate=20 May 2014|work=The Arch|publisher=The Old Reptonian Society|date=October 2009|title=Remembered in Stone|last=Plowright|first=John}}</ref>
Burd remained an active historical scholar throughout his teaching career. He was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and he produced a new edited edition of Machiavelli's ''Il Principe'' (''The Prince'') (1891) which was highly praised in ''The English Historical Review'' and described as leaving nothing to be desired.<ref>"''Il Principe by Niccolò Machiavelli'' by L. Arthur Burd; ''Life and Times of Niccolò Machiavelli'' by Pasquale Villari" Reviews by M. Petriburg in ''The English Historical Review'', Vol. 7, No. 26 (Apr., 1892), pp. 354–357.</ref> He also wrote the chapter on "Florence and Machiavelli" in Lord Acton's<ref>"[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2639967 Lord Acton and the Plan of the Cambridge Modern History]" by Josef L. Altholz in ''The Historical Journal'', Vol. 39, No. 3 (Sep., 1996), pp. 723-736.</ref> ''The Cambridge Modern History'' (Volume 1, 1902).<ref name=Times/>
==Hobbies== thumbnail|right|150px|The Penny Black ''The Times'' commented, in its obituary for Burd, that he was "a man of many hobbies - fishing, the 'cello, stamp-collecting, cycling and portrait photography - but he took them up one at a time until he had achieved success in each".<ref name=Times/>
In philately, Burd specialised in early Great Britain, particularly pre-adhesive mail. He was an early student of plating and was one of a small group of dedicated collectors who succeeded in plating the Penny Black. In 1922 he reminisced in ''The London Philatelist'' about the task of which he said "To most observers it must have appeared a visionary undertaking, the self-imposed task of quixotic idealists, whose conclusions could admit neither verification nor refutation." He described the painstaking nature of the activity: "year by year the work was carried forward-patiently, methodically, cautiously: perplexities were disentangled, hypotheses discarded or confirmed, until at length, in the fullness of time, the goal has been reached: a task, too great for the span of any single mind, has been completed".<ref>"The Plating of the Penny Black" by L. Arthur Burd in ''The London Philatelist'', Vol. 31, No. 368, August 1922, pp. 192–194.</ref> His collection of 8,000 Penny Blacks, each "scientifically classified and indexed",<ref>"The Plating of the Penny Black" by J.B. Seymour in ''The London Philatelist'', Vol. 39, No. 466, October 1930, pp. 242–244.</ref> was sold to the stamp dealer Charles Nissen in 1919.<ref name=abps>[http://www.abps.org.uk/Home/Who_Was_Who/index.xalter#B ''Who Was Who in British Philately''], Association of British Philatelic Societies, 2014. Retrieved 9 May 2014. [https://archive.today/20120721034742/http://www.abps.org.uk/Home/Who_Was_Who/index.xalter Archived here.]</ref>
Burd was a member of the Royal Philatelic Society London from 1918<ref name=LP/> and signed the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in 1924.<ref>''[http://www.abps.org.uk/Awards/Roll_of_Distinguished_Philatelists/RDP_Background_20111231_LR.pdf Background notes on The Roll of Distinguished Philatelists September 2011]'', Roll of Distinguished Philatelists Trust, London, 2011. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130819000841/http://abps.org.uk/Awards/Roll_of_Distinguished_Philatelists/RDP_Background_20111231_LR.pdf Archived here.]</ref>
==Death== Burd died at home, at The Pastures, Repton, on 12 April 1931 aged 67. He was survived by his wife and two children.<ref name=LP/>
==Selected publications== *''[https://archive.org/details/a591295400machuoft Il Principe]'' by Niccolò Machiavelli. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1891. (Editor) (Introduction by Lord Acton)
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Burd, Lawrence Arthur}} Category:Signatories to the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists Category:1863 births Category:1931 deaths Category:British philatelists Category:Schoolteachers from Derbyshire Category:People from Shrewsbury Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Category:People educated at Clifton College Category:Fellows of the Royal Philatelic Society London Category:Fellows of the Royal Historical Society