General Sir Richard Bourke, KCB (4 May 1777 – 12 August 1855) was an Irish soldier, who served in the British Army and was Governor of New South Wales from 1831 to 1837.

As a lifelong Whig (Liberal), he encouraged the emancipation of convicts and helped bring forward the ending of penal transportation to Australia.

He served in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland in 1799 and was badly wounded in the jaw, which gave him a lifelong speech impediment and contributed to his decision not to seek a political career.

[2] In 1807, Bourke participated in the British invasions of the River Plate as quartermaster general, taking part in the Siege of Montevideo and the Battle of Buenos Aires.

He retired from the army after the Peninsular War to live on his Irish estate, but eventually sought government office to increase his income.

Under Bourke's governorship, much was done to reform the old mercantilist system of government inherited from the Dutch East India Company at the Cape.

He managed this despite fierce opposition from the legislature, and his 1833 bill for the extension of juries was only passed with his casting vote and with conservative amendments.

However, furious magistrates and employers petitioned the crown against this interference with their legal rights, fearing that a reduction in punishments would cease to provide enough deterrence to the convicts, and this issue was exploited by his opponents.

In 1835, Bourke issued a proclamation through the Colonial Office, implementing the doctrine of terra nullius by proclaiming that Indigenous Australians could not sell or assign land, nor could an individual person acquire it, other than through distribution by the Crown.

He died at his residence, Thornfield House, Ahane, in County Limerick, Ireland, on Sunday 12 August 1855[10] and is buried in Stradbally Cemetery in Castleconnell.

One daughter, Anne Maria, married the Australian administrator and politician Sir Edward Deas Thomson, and was an ancestor of the Barons Altrincham.