John Burns
George V | |
---|---|
Prime Minister | H. H. Asquith |
Preceded by | Sydney Buxton |
Succeeded by | Walter Runciman |
Personal details | |
Born | Vauxhall, London, England | 20 October 1858
Died | 24 January 1943 | (aged 84)
Citizenship | United Kingdom |
John Elliot Burns (20 October 1858 – 24 January 1943) was an English
Early life
Burns was born in
In 1878, he was arrested and held overnight for addressing an open-air demonstration on
Radical politics
In 1884 Burns was elected to the Social Democratic Federation's executive council. At the Industrial Remuneration Conference of 1885 he made some interventions that attracted attention.[3]
He stood for Parliament in the
In August 1889, Burns played a major part in the
In 1889, he became a Progressive member of the first London County Council for Battersea. He was supported by his constituents, who subscribed an allowance of £2 a week. He devoted his efforts against private monopolies and introduced a motion in 1892 that all contracts for the County Council should be paid at trade union rates and carried out under trade union conditions. As a local politician, Burns is particularly noted for his role in the creation of Battersea's Latchmere Estate, the first municipal housing estate built using a council's own direct labour force, officially opened in 1903. He was connected with the Trades Union Congresses until 1895.
Parliamentary career
Sing a Song of Sixpence,
Dockers on the strike.
Guinea pigs are hungry,
As the greedy pike.
Till the docks are opened,
Burns for you will speak.
Courage lads, and you'll win,
Well within the week.
London dockworkers in 1889[5]
In 1892, he was elected as Member of Parliament for Battersea as the candidate of the Battersea Liberal Association. He displayed fervent Parliamentary opposition to the Second Boer War (1900).
Burns became well known as an independent Radical, but while fellow socialist
In 1914 Burns was appointed
Despite his earlier radicalism, Burns adopted various positions during his time in Cabinet that placed him on the right-wing of the Liberal Party. Although supportive of the government's introduction of old-age pensions in 1908,[8] Burns was opposed to the provision of government aid to the unemployed, arguing that no outdoor relief should be given to the poor. According to Kenneth D. Brown, Burns had long believed “that poverty and its related problems were the combined outcome of individual failure and an inadequate social environment. This was reinforced by a strong streak of puritanism which expressed itself in his opposition to smoking, drinking, and gambling." Burns had also spoken out in opposition to the gradual development of what would become known as the Welfare State, arguing in 1913 that charitable organisations and government “should not "supersede the mother, and they should not by over-attention sterilise her initiative and capacity to do what every mother should be able to do for herself."[9]
Antisemitism
Burns has been described as an antisemite by scholars of Jewish history such as
His opposition to the Second Boer War was interconnected with his personal antisemitism, making repeated references to the "trail of the financial serpent", declaring at an anti-war rally at Battersea Park in 1900 that “the South African Jew has…no bowels of compassion…every institution and class had been scheduled by the Jew as his heritage, medium and dependent. Where he could not intimidate, he corrupted; where he could not corrupt, he defamed…[the Boers] defend their land, not from a nation armed, vindicating a righteous cause, but against a militant capitalism that is using our soldiers as the uniformed brokers’ men turning out the wrong tenants in South Africa for the interests of the Jews...with wisdom foresight and kindliness, we may yet retain South Africa for the Empire and humanity, even though we may lose it for the Jews”.[14]
Later, Burns declared in Parliament that "wherever we examine, there is the financial Jew, operating, directing, inspiring the agencies that have led to this war".
Burns deplored the British Army which had, in his view, been transformed from the "
He remarked during a tour of the
Interests
Burns was a non-drinker and enthusiast for sporting activity.[16] He was a long-time lover of cricket, being a regular at The Oval and Lord's, and sustained severe injuries being hit in the face by a cricket ball while watching a match in 1894.[17]
In 1919 he was left an annuity of £1000 by Andrew Carnegie which left him financially independent and he spent the rest of his life devoted to his interests in books, London history and cricket. As a book collector, he created a very large private library, much of which he left to University of London Library.[18] He developed an acknowledged expertise in the history of London, and in 1929, when an American compared the River Thames unfavourably with the Mississippi, he responded "The St Lawrence is water, the Mississippi is muddy water, but the Thames is liquid history".[19]
A collection of his papers is held at the University of London library, and embraces many of his political interests, including universal adult suffrage, working hours and conditions, employment, pensions, poor laws, temperance, social conditions, local government, South African labour, and the Boer War.
He died aged 84 and was buried in St Mary's Cemetery, Battersea Rise. His connections with Battersea are recalled by the naming of a local school and a housing estate after him, as does John Burns Drive in Barking, and one of the Woolwich Ferry vessels also carried his name.
References
- ^ Thom, Colin (2012–2013). "Battersea" (PDF). Survey of London. 50 (Draft): Chapter 8, pp2-4.
- ^ a b c Encyclopædia Britannica 1911.
- ^ In Encyclopædia Britannica 1911 the Conference is dated 1884 and it said that Burns delivered a speech at the conference which attracted considerable attention. But Burns did in fact contribute to some discussions, for instance at friday afternoon (30 January) (Industrial remuneration conference : the report of the proceedings and papers : read in Prince's Hall, Piccadilly under the presidency of the Right Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke Bart., M.P. on the 28th, 29th and 30th January 1885. 1885. pp. 483f.
- ^ Pelling 1992, p.89
- ISBN 0-14-080304-1.
- ^ "WOMEN'S ENFRANCHISEMENT BILL". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 28 February 1908.
- ^ Clark, Christopher, The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went To War in 1914, 2012, p.543
- ^ Thane, Pat (Autumn 2008). "The Old Age Pensions Act, 1908" (PDF). The Journal of Liberal History (60). Liberal Democrat History Group.
- ^ John Simkin. "John Burns". Spartacus Educational.
- ^ a b David Feldman. Englishmen and Jews: Social Relations and Political Culture, 1840-1914. (London: Yale UP, 1994) 266
- ^ Colin Holmes. Anti-Semitism in British Society, 1876-1939. (Routledge Library Editions Racism and Fascism, 2015) 68)
- ^ a b Wistrich, Robert S. From Ambivalence to Betrayal The Left, the Jews, and Israel. Lincoln: UNP - Nebraska, 2012. 206
- ^ a b Anthony Julius. Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England (Oxford: OUP, 2012) 417
- ^ Anthony Julius. Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England (Oxford: OUP, 2012) 275
- ^ a b c d Hirshfield, Claire. ‘The Anglo-Boer War and the issue of Jewish culpability’, Journal of Contemporary History 15.4 (1980): 626
- ^ Sean Creighton Organised Cycling and Politics: the 1890s & 1900s in BatterseaThe Sports Historian No. 15
- ^ "ITALY AND THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE. - The Subject Discussed in a Debate Concerning the Italian Budget. - View Article - NYTimes.com" (PDF). 4 May 1894.
- ^ Senate House Library John Burns Collection Archived 5 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Sources
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ISBN 978-0-14-013640-1.
Further reading
- Knott, G. H. (1901). Mr John Burns, MP. Henry J. Drane. pp. Introductory.
- Kenneth D. Brown, "Burns, John Elliott (1858–1943)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004) online edn, May 2010 accessed 13 Sept 2014 doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32194
External links
- "Archival material relating to John Burns". UK National Archives.
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Burns
- John Elliott Burns (1858–1943), Labour leader and politician in National Portrait Gallery