Philip Burkinshaw was born in Wakefield and educated at King Edward VII School, Sheffield.
After war service with the 12th Battalion, 6th Airborne, in Normandy, the Ardennes and Rhine Airborne Assaults ... where he was mentioned in Despatches ... and with the 9th in Palestine, he completed his degree in languages at the University of Sheffield and joined the Colonial Service in 1949.
He served in Sierra Leone where he was ADC to the then Governor, Sir George Beresford-Stooke, and thereafter, as District Commissioner there and also in the Gambia and Nyasaland, latterly as Deputy Provincial Commissioner.
He spent 2 and a half years in the Turks and Caicos islands as Assistant Administrator. In 1969 he joined the Corps of Queen's Messengers and, in the course of his service, was seconded for duty on the Pearce Commission in Rhodesia.
He retired in 1982 as a member of the Security Department at the FCO. He died in Walsingham, Norfolk, and leaves a widow Diane.
There are several mentions of Philip on the website.