{{Short description|British socialist activist (1845–1922)}} {{Infobox person | name = Herbert Burrows | image = Burrows-Herbert.jpg | birth_date = 12 June 1845 | birth_place = Redgrave, Suffolk, England | death_date = 14 December 1922 | death_place = Highbury Park, London, England | occupation = Socialist organiser | organization = Manhood Suffrage League; National Secular Society; The Rainbow Circle; Conway Hall Ethical Society; Theosophical Society | political_party = Social Democratic Federation | movement = Socialism; trade unionism; secularism; theosophy | spouse = Mary Hannah (m. 1869) | father = Amos Burrows (chartist organiser) }}
'''Herbert Burrows''' (12 June 1845 – 14 December 1922) was a British socialist activist.<ref name=":0">{{Cite ODNB |title=Burrows, Herbert (1845–1922), socialist organizer |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-39607 |access-date=4 December 2022 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/39607 |date=8 October 2009 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>
==Early life== Born in Redgrave, Suffolk, Burrows' father Amos was a former Chartist leader.<ref name=":0" /> Burrows educated himself using Cassell's shilling handbooks, becoming a pupil teacher at the age of thirteen; he initially pursued a career in teaching before becoming an excise officer.<ref name=MacKillop /> In 1869, he married Mary Hannah Musk (1845–1889).<ref name=":0" /> The couple had a daughter and a son.<ref name=":0" />
From 1872, Burrows studied briefly as a non-collegiate student at the University of Cambridge, but did not take a degree.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=MacKillop /> He worked as a civil servant for the Inland Revenue,<ref name=MacKillop /> including in Norwich, Barnet, Blackburn, and Chatham,<ref name=":0" /> a career that lasted until his retirement in 1907.<ref name=MacKillop />
== Activism == Burrows moved to London in 1877, where he joined radical clubs including the National Secular Society.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=MacKillop /> 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.<ref name=":0" /> In 1881, with Henry Hyndman, he formed the Democratic Federation, and became its treasurer in 1883.<ref name=":0" />
Burrows supported the Federation's commitment to socialism in 1884, when it was renamed the Social Democratic Federation (SDF).<ref name=":0" /> Often writing under the pseudonym C.V., he contributed articles to its newspaper, ''Justice''.<ref name=":0" /> He represented the group on the executive of the Law and Liberty League.<ref name=":0" />
With Annie Besant—whom he had met through his connection with Bradlaugh and the National Secular Society—Burrows was a key organiser of the Bryant & May matchgirls' strike of 1888,<ref name=MacKillop /> and afterwards became the treasurer of the Union of Women Matchmakers, then the largest women's trade union in England.<ref name=":0" /> Burrows actively promoted unionisation among workers, and the success of the matchgirls' strike helped to galvanise the trade union movement.<ref name=":0" /> He maintained an active role in the Women's Trade Union League and the Women's Industrial Council until 1917.<ref name=":0" />
Burrows also became a prominent member of South Place Ethical Society,<ref name=MacKillop>{{Cite book|last=MacKillop |first=Ian D. |year=1986 |title=The British Ethical Societies |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mqgsFS_MN9UC |pages=60–62 |isbn=978-0-521-26672-7}}</ref> the Rainbow Circle,<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QCZnAAAAMAAJ |title=Minutes of the Rainbow Circle, 1894–1924 |date=1989 |publisher=Offices of the Royal Historical Society, University College |editor-last=Freeden |editor-first=Michael |editor-link=Michael Freeden |pages=ix, 40, 90 |isbn=978-0-86193-120-0}}</ref> the Theosophical Society, the International Arbitration and Peace Association and the International Arbitration League.<ref name=":0" /> From 1907 until 1922, Burrows was Appointed Lecturer to the South Place Ethical Society, now Conway Hall Ethical Society.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://conwayhall.org.uk/ethical-society/galleries/|title=Galleries|website=Conway Hall|language=en-GB|access-date=7 January 2020|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190502150512/https://conwayhall.org.uk/ethical-society/galleries/|archive-date=2 May 2019}}</ref> Burrows served on the Humanitarian League's Executive Committee.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2025|title=Humanitarian League Committees|url=https://www.henrysalt.co.uk/humanitarian-league/committees/|website=Henry S. Salt|language=en-GB|archive-date=December 14, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241214055704/https://www.henrysalt.co.uk/humanitarian-league/committees/|url-status=live}}</ref> He was a teetotaller, vegetarian, and lifelong pacifist.<ref name=":0" />
Burrows stood for Parliament unsuccessfully in the 1908 Haggerston by-election,<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/8th-august-1908/2/the-polling-in-the-haggerston-division-of-shoredit |title=The polling in the Haggerston division of Shoreditch took place... |website=The Spectator Archive |date=8 August 1908 |page=2 |access-date=2 January 2023}}</ref> and again in Haggerston in 1910.<ref name=":0" /> He resigned from the SDF (then the Social Democratic Party) in 1911.<ref name=":0" />
== Death == Afflicted by paralysis from 1917, Burrows died at his home in Highbury Park, London on 14 December 1922.<ref name=":0" />
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links ==
* [http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-no2008092915/ Herbert Burrows] at WorldCat {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burrows, Herbert}} Category:1845 births Category:1922 deaths Category:British critics of religions Category:British pacifists Category:British socialists Category:British social reformers Category:Humanitarian League workers Category:People from Redgrave, Suffolk Category:Social Democratic Federation members