Life

Born at Southwark

Southwark

Southwark is a district of south London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Southwark. Situated east of Charing Cross, it forms one of the oldest parts of London and fronts the River Thames to the north...

 on 22 January 1828, was he was a younger son of Jabez Burns

Jabez Burns

Jabez Burns was an English nonconformist divine and Christian philosophical writer.He was one of the first clergymen of any denomination to preach teetotalism from the pulpit.-Biography:...

, Baptist minister of New Church Street Chapel on Edgware Road, a temperance advocate from 1836. His mother was Jane, daughter of George Dawson of Keighley

Keighley

Keighley is a town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated northwest of Bradford and is at the confluence of the River Aire and the River Worth...

. At twelve Dawson Burns took the pledge and addressed the young members of his father's congregation in New Church Street.

In February 1845 he became assistant secretary to the National Temperance Society, and a year later joint secretary, editing its monthly organ, the ‘Temperance Chronicle.’ He was official reporter of the World's Convention held in August 1846, in which his father took a prominent part. From September 1847 to 1850 he studied at the General Baptist College, then at Leicester

Leicester

Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...

, becoming pastor of the Baptist chapel at Salford

City of Salford

The City of Salford is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Salford, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Eccles, Swinton-Pendlebury, Walkden and Irlam which apart from Irlam each have a population of over...

 in September 1851. In 1853 he helped Nathaniel Card, a Quaker, to found in Manchester the United Kingdom Alliance

United Kingdom Alliance

The United Kingdom Alliance was a temperance movement in the United Kingdom founded on 20 July 1852. It was based in Manchester and sought to outlaw the alcohol trade.-History:...

 with a view to influencing the licensing laws. He was in London in March 1853 as metropolitan superintendent, and was enrolled the sixth member on 1 June 1853.

Living in North London, he worked energetically for the temperance cause with pen and speech. He was made an hon. M.A. of Bates College

Bates College

Bates College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. and was most recently ranked 21st in the nation in the 2011 US News Best Liberal Arts Colleges rankings. The college was founded in 1855 by abolitionists...

, Maine, U.S.A., in 1869 and afterwards D.D. On his father's death in 1876 he took over the pastorate of New Church Street Chapel, where he had assisted, but resigned it in 1881, to devote himself to temperance work.

He represented the Baptist New Connexion at the centennial conference in America in 1880, acted as secretary to the Temperance Hospital opened in 1881, and was president of the Association of General Baptists held at Norwich in the same year. He promoted temperance legislation, holding that the law should protect the public and not the liquor trade.

Burns died at Battersea

Battersea

Battersea is an area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is an inner-city district of South London, situated on the south side of the River Thames, 2.9 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Battersea spans from Fairfield in the west to Queenstown in the east...

 on 22 August 1909, and was buried at Paddington

Paddington

Paddington is a district within the City of Westminster, in central London, England. Formerly a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965...

.

Liberator Building Society

Burns was a director of the Liberator Building Society, which his brother-in-law, Jabez Balfour

Jabez Balfour

Jabez Spencer Balfour was a businessman, British Liberal Party politician and fraudster.-Life:He was the son of James Balfour and Clara Lucas Balfour....

, founded in 1868 and of which Balfour was chairman. Disapproving of an increase of directors' fees, Burns resigned, before the society's failure in October 1892. Subsequently Balfour and other directors were convicted of fraud and sentenced to terms of imprisonment.

Works

When still young he wrote ‘A Plea for Youths' Temperance Societies’ and contributed articles to the ‘Weekly Temperance Journal’ and the ‘National Temperance Advocate.’ From March 1856 he wrote a ‘London Letter’ for the ‘Alliance News’ (weekly) and published books and pamphlets. He edited ‘Graham's Annual Temperance Guide’ from 1867 to 1876.

Among Burns's numerous publications are:

• ‘Mormonism Exposed,’ 1853.
• ‘Scripture Light on Intoxicating Liquors,’ 1859.
• ‘The Temperance Dictionary,’ Nos. 1–34, 1861.
• (With Frederic Richard Lees) ‘The Temperance Bible Commentary,’ 1868; other editions, 1872, 1876, 1880, 1894.
• ‘Statistics of the Liquor Traffic,’ 1872.
• ‘Temperance Ballads,’ 1884. 7. ‘Local Option,’ 1885, 3rd edit. 1896; new standard edit. 1909.
• ‘Temperance History,’ 2 vols. 1889–91.
• ‘The Bible and Temperance Reform: the Lees and Raper Memorial Lecture,’ 1906.
• ‘Country Walks and Temperance Talks,’ 1901.

In a series of annual letters to The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

(1886–1909), on the ‘National Drink Bill,’ he cited facts and statistics.

Family

On 22 December 1853 he married Cecile, only daughter of James and Clara Lucas Balfour

Clara Lucas Balfour

Clara Lucas Balfour was an English temperance campaigner, lecturer and author.-Early life:Balfour was born in the New Forest, Hampshire, on 21 December 1808. Her parents' name was Lucas; her mother Sarah left Hampshire and took up residence in London with Clara in 1818...

. His wife died at Battersea on 27 March 1897; of his five sons and a daughter, only two sons survived him. Burns wrote memoirs of his wife and of his third son, Edward Spenser Burns (1861–1885), who died on 1 March 1885 at Leopoldville

Leopoldville

Leopoldville may refer to:* The capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, today known as Kinshasa* SS Leopoldville, a troopship sunk in 1944...

, Stanley Pool (now Kinshasa

Kinshasa

Kinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is located on the Congo River....

, Democratic Republic of Congo) on a mission for the International African Association

International African Association

The International African Association was a front organization created by King Leopold II of Belgium, ostensibly to further humanitarian projects in the area of Central Africa that was to become the Congo Free State and subsequently today's Democratic Republic of the Congo.-History:The...

 in the Congo district, opening up a new route towards the Kouilou-Niari River

Kouilou-Niari River

The Kouilou-Niari River — also spelled Kwilu, Kwila, or Kwil — is the main drainage path for the coastal basin of the Republic of the Congo. The river is called the Kouilou River along most of its length, but its center section, in the Niari region of The Congo, is called the Niari River...

, and constructing charts.