Samuel Burke was born in a Punjabi Christian family of twelve brothers and sisters in Martinpur, a village in the Punjab Province of British India (now in Pakistan).
His grandfather Chaudhry Allah Ditta was a convert to Christianity, while his father Janab Khairuddin, the first graduate from his village, was a school headmaster who wrote Urdu poetry under the pen name Burq (lightning), which later would be Anglicized as Burke.
[4][5] Having passed his matriculation in the first division and secured a government scholarship, Samuel Burke studied at the Government College, Lahore specializing in subjects such as History, Philosophy, Persian and Urdu, earning an BA (Hons) and later his MA in History.
[8] In 1953, he became the first Pakistani Christian head of a diplomatic mission when he was appointed Minister to Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark.
[2] Burke has authored a number of books covering Pakistan's history and foreign policy.