THORBURN, John, educator, born near Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland, 10 October, 1830. He was educated at Edinburgh university in 1855, became classical master in the Western institution in that city, and came to Canada in 1856. In 1860 he was appointed principal of St. Francis college, Richmond, and its professor of classics, and in 1862 he became head master of the grammar-school (now the collegiate institution) at Ottawa, which post he held for about twenty years. In 1882 he was appointed librarian to the geological and natural history survey of Canada, and the same year he was appointed by the government a member of the board of civil-service examiners. He was president of the Ottawa literary and scientific society, prepared for the department of militia a scheme for entrance examination into the military college at Kingston, and has been active in other respects as an educator. He received the degree of M. A. from McGill university in 1860, and that of LL.D. from Queen's university, Kingston, in 1880.