Philip Lionel Burton
British civil servant
Philip Lionel Burton (2 April 1914 – 14 June 1996) was Head of the Civil Service Pay Research Unit between 1963 and 1971. He was appointed CBE in 1972 and was subsequently an adviser to Governments at home and overseas on pay related issues.
Life
Philip Lionel Burton was born at Elstree on 2 April 1914 and educated at Bedford Modern School. At the end of his schooldays his father was taken ill and Burton was forced to abandon hopes of going to University. Instead Burton joined the civil service, initially working at the GPO.
In 1935, Burton was assigned to the War Office, the first person to be recruited since the end of the Great War. He was not allowed to join the army at the outbreak of World War II, so he moved to Talbot House with Tubby Clayton to do Fire Watch Duty in the City.
In time Burton's section of the War Office was evacuated and he became a Lieutenant of the War Office Home Guard platoon until finally joining the army in 1941. Despite being offered an immediate commission, he initially decided to join the ranks where he saw service in Egypt. He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in 1943 and was demobilised with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
After the war, Burton continued his career with the War Office in West Africa, Northern Command and the Suez Canal Zone before joining the Civil Service Pay Research Unit as Commanding Officer in 1957.
“Philip Lionel Burton” enters the record as british civil servant. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Philip, Lionel and Burton can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Philip Lionel Burton” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Philip, Lionel and Burton provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q20979078. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1914, 1996, 1963 and 1971.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Philip Lionel Burton”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Philip Lionel Burton primary sources, Philip Lionel Burton archive and Philip research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Philip Lionel Burton”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Philip Lionel Burton” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.