Robert Burrows (politician)
Sir Robert Abraham Burrows, was a British industrialist who served as High Sheriff of Cheshire.
Family background
Scion of an ancient East Anglian family, his grandfather Alderman Abraham Burrows moved from Great Yarmouth to south Lancashire where he prospered in coal mining and logistics, later becoming seated at the Green Hall, Atherton.His second son, Miles Formby Burrows married Gertrude née Dawbarn in 1882, having three sons, Robert, Walter and Miles.
Educated at the Leys School, Cambridge, Robert Burrows joined the family firm of Fletcher, Burrows and Company in 1904.
In 1911, he married Eleanor Doris Bainbridge, great-granddaughter of Bainbridge's founder Emerson Muschamp Bainbridge.
Sir Robert and Lady Burrows had two sons and two daughters.
Their younger son, David Burrows married Susan Arnot Heath, having two daughters:
- Nicola Diana Burrows, now Williams-Ellis,, who married firstly Count Alex Mapelli-Mozzi, whose daughter-in-law since 2020 is Princess Beatrice;
- Philippa Anne Burrows, wife of Mark Wiggin, of Downton Hall, Shropshire, whose great-grandfather was Brigadier-General Edgar Wiggin, High Sheriff of Warwickshire.
Life and career
A director of Fletcher, Burrows and Company which merged in 1929 with Manchester Collieries Ltd, he was appointed Chairman of Lancashire Associated Collieries. Founding President of the Lancashire and Cheshire Coal Research Association, Burrows also served as a member of the Fuel Research Board.Chairman of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, Sir Robert presented a flower bouquet in the shape of a large heart as a "personal tribute" wishing farewell to Princess Elizabeth and her fiancé Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten in the presence of King George VI, his wife Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, before the Royal Train departed Crewe for Scotland in July 1947.
Burrows was seated at Bonis Hall, near Prestbury, Cheshire, where in the 1930s house guests included HRH the Duke of York (the future George VI), who became a friend through their mutual involvement with the National Association of Boys' Clubs. In 1945 Sir Robert became Chairman of Remploy Ltd.
Knighted in the 1937 New Year Honours, Burrows served as a Justice of the Peace for Lancashire, and as High Sheriff of Cheshire for 1940/41.
Appointed CStJ in 1948, Sir Robert was advanced KBE in the 1952 New Year Honours "for services to the disabled".