Robert Needham Cust

Robert Needham Cust (24 February 1821 – 27 October 1909) was a British colonial administrator and judge in India, Anglican evangelist and linguist. He was part of the Orientalism movement and active within the British and Foreign Bible Society. He was a prolific writer and wrote on a range of subjects.

Cust was born to Reverend Henry Cockayne Cust, who was the second son of Sir Brownlow Cust, first baron Brownlow (1744–1807), and Lady Anna Maria Elizabeth Needham. Cust was educated at Eton College, Trinity College, Cambridge, Haileybury (1840–42) and the College of Fort William, Calcutta, graduating from the last-named institution in 1844. He then worked in the Bengal Civil Services for the East India Company, in Hoshiarpur and Ambala (assistant to the magistrate), in India.

He was present at the battles of Mudki, Ferozeshah, and Sobraon in 1845-46, where his superior Major George Broadfoot was killed and at the close of the Sikh campaign he was placed in charge of a new province in the Punjab. There he filled in succession every office in the judicial and revenue departments across Punjab, and was rapidly promoted until 1867, when he resigned and returned to England, after having been a member of the Viceroy's Legislative Council and Home Secretary to the Government of India in 1864-65.

Cust returned to England briefly on furlough and returned to work in Benares and Banda. For his work he was offered the high post of magistrate and collector at Delhi. He declined the offer and went on furlough again to England in 1857. The officer who took up the the post became a victim of the 1857 rebellion. Cust was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn on 13 August 1857. Cust returned to India and served in Lahore at the request of Sir John Lawrence but left again for England when his first wife died on 17 January 1864. He then returned to join the legislative council and acted as home secretary to the government (1864–65). In 1867 his second wife died in childbirth and he decided to retire from Indian service even though he was just nine months away from completing the tenure needed to receive a full pension.

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