Herbert Burrows

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Herbert Burrows
Born12 June 1845
Redgrave, Suffolk, England
Died14 December 1922
Highbury Park, London, England
OccupationSocialist organiser
Organization(s)Manhood Suffrage League; National Secular Society; The Rainbow Circle; Conway Hall Ethical Society; Theosophical Society
Political partySocial Democratic Federation
MovementSocialism; trade unionism; secularism; theosophy
SpouseMary Hannah (m. 1869)
Parent
  • Amos Burrows (chartist organiser) (father)

Herbert Burrows (12 June 1845 – 14 December 1922) was a British

socialist activist.[1]

Early life

Born in

pupil teacher at the age of thirteen; he initially pursued a career in teaching before becoming an excise officer.[2] In 1869, he married Mary Hannah Musk (1845–1889).[1] The couple had a daughter and a son.[1]

From 1872, Burrows studied briefly as a non-collegiate student at the

civil servant for the Inland Revenue,[2] including in Norwich, Barnet, Blackburn, and Chatham,[1] a career that lasted until his retirement in 1907.[2]

Activism

Burrows moved to London in 1877, where he joined radical clubs including the National Secular Society.[1][2] He was a founder member of the Aristotelian Society in 1880, joined the Social and Political Education League and became Vice President of the Manhood Suffrage League.[1] In 1881, with Henry Hyndman, he formed the Democratic Federation, and became its treasurer in 1883.[1]

Burrows supported the Federation's commitment to socialism in 1884, when it was renamed the Social Democratic Federation (SDF).[1] Often writing under the pseudonym C.V., he contributed articles to its newspaper, Justice.[1] He represented the group on the executive of the Law and Liberty League.[1]

With

Union of Women Matchmakers, then the largest women's trade union in England.[1] Burrows actively promoted unionisation among workers, and the success of the matchgirls' strike helped to galvanise the trade union movement.[1] He maintained an active role in the Women's Trade Union League and the Women's Industrial Council until 1917.[1]

Burrows also became a prominent member of

teetotaller, vegetarian, and lifelong pacifist.[1]

Burrows stood for Parliament unsuccessfully in the 1908 Haggerston by-election,[5] and again in Haggerston in 1910.[1] He resigned from the SDF (then the Social Democratic Party) in 1911.[1]

Death

Afflicted by paralysis from 1917, Burrows died at his home in Highbury Park, London on 14 December 1922.[1]

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39607. Retrieved 4 December 2022. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-0-521-26672-7
    .
  3. ISBN 978-0-86193-120-0
    .
  4. ^ "Galleries". Conway Hall. Archived from the original on 2 May 2019. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  5. ^ "The polling in the Haggerston division of Shoreditch took place..." The Spectator Archive. 8 August 1908. p. 2. Retrieved 2 January 2023.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Herbert_Burrows&oldid=1204914493"