Leonard Burrows

Leonard Hedley Burrows[1] (7 December 1857 – 6 February 1940) was an Anglican bishop.

Memorial in Sheffield Cathedral

Biography

Born at Rugby, Warwickshire on 7 December 1857, he was educated at Charterhouse[2] and New College, Oxford.[3] Ordained in 1881, he was a Curate at Dorking after which he was Vicar of Wrecclesham and then Rural Dean of Godalming before his appointment as Bishop of Lewes.[4] Translated to Sheffield in 1914 he served 25 years as its first Diocesan Bishop.[5]

The key figure in the appointment of bishops at that time was the Prime Minister, H H Asquith. He regarded Burrows and his wife “as rather of the ‘pushing’ order”, but still had Burrows appointed to Sheffield although Burrow’s whole career had been in the south of England.[6]

Burrows was a strong supporter of British involvement in the Great War, even though his younger son, Leonard Righton Burrows, was killed in action. He had already written of ‘ ....personal devotion and self-sacrifice even unto death in the cause of righteousness, freedom and truth.’ [7]

Three months after his son’s death, Burrows praised Church people who ‘have thrown their whole strength into the War’. [8] Clergy were serving as chaplains and in the Royal Army Medical Corps, and 51 sons of clergymen had volunteered for the military. In 1917, Burrows opposed peace proposals [9] and, in 1918, looked forward to total victory over Germany ‘For the first time in History there is a real chance of obtaining a lasting peace for the world. If the system of military and scientific barbarism for which Germany stands can be finally and completely destroyed, a League of Nations will be possible which shall exchange the law of force for the force of law. Is any sacrifice too great to achieve so priceless a blessing?’ [10]

Like so many of his generation, Burrows would be disappointed that a Second World War lay just two decades ahead.

Burrows retired from Sheffield in August, 1939, on the eve of the Second World War. He was described as a fine Christian gentleman and a splendid Diocesan. [11]

He died on 6 February 1940.[12]

Burrows was the father of Hedley Burrows (Dean of Hereford)[13] and grandfather of Simon Burrows (Bishop of Buckingham).[14]

References

1. NPG details
2. “Who was Who” 1897-1990 London, A & C Black, 1991 ISBN 0-7136-3457-X
3. University Intelligence. Oxford,Feb. 3 The Times Friday, February 04, 1881; pg. 12; Issue 30109; col B
4. New Suffragan Bishopric The Times Thursday, 27 May 1909; pg. 9; Issue 38970; col B
5. His predecessor Quirk was a Suffragan; Burrows the first Diocesan
6. Lambeth Palace Library, Davidson X(10)
7. Sheffield Diocesan Gazette, January, 1915
8. Sheffield Diocesan Gazette, January, 1916
9. Sheffield Diocesan Gazette, September, 1917
10. Sheffield Diocesan Gazette, February, 1918
11. The Times obituary, 7.2.1940
12. Obituary- Rt Rev L.H Burrrows The Times Wednesday, February 07, 1940; pg. 11; Issue 48533; col F
13. ‘BURROWS, Very Rev. Hedley Robert’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2007 , accessed 30 June 2012
14. ‘BURROWS, Rt Rev. Simon Hedley’, Who's Who 2012, A & C Black, 2012; online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2011 , accessed 30 June 2012