Hume, Allan Octavian (1829–1912)

British administrator. Hume was educated at the East India College (now Haileybury College) and London University, passing from there to the Bengal Civil Service in 1849. In Simla he formed an organization which would further the aspirations of advanced Indians; this was the birth of the National Congress which held its first session in 1885. When Hume returned to England in 1894 he took great interest in the British Committee of the Indian Congress.

In India Hume made a valuable collection of botanical and ornithological specimens, and published The Game Birds of India, Burmah, and Ceylon (1879–81). He presented his collection to the British Museum of Natural History (South Kensington). He founded the South London Botanical Museum and made provision for it in perpetuity.