Overview
This club was made up of several local and regional Burns clubs: in 1908, one year after its founding, there were 23 clubs, and the group grew to include 40 clubs by 1914. It met at various venues across Glasgow including the National Burns Club (93 Douglas Street), the Trades House Restaurant (89 Glassford Street), the Christian Institute (Bothwell Street), and the Religious Institution Rooms (200 Buchanan Street). Meetings were held intermittently during the year. The 1911 Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory published the group’s objects under its ‘Special features of Club’:
‘To further the interests of the Burns cult by promoting closer union between the Clubs in the district and bringing the members of these Clubs into more harmonious relationship, and to take the initiative in instituting and recommending movements likely to be beneficial to the cult.’
(‘No. 169 — GLASGOW AND DISTRICT Association of Burns Clubs and Kindred Societies’, ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1911’, in Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XX (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1911), p. 176)
Date of Existence
8 November 1907-1919? Federated 1908
Source of Information
1. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1909’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XVIII (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1909), p. 179;
2. ‘Club Notes’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XIX (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1910), p. 190;
3. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1911’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XX (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1911), p. 176;
4. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1912’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XXI (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1912), p. 180;
5. Glasgow and District Burns Club, Minutes, 12 September 1912-30 April 1919 (MLSC, 891709);
6. Macmillan, Donald, Burns and the war: his message to the nation: an address delivered before the Glasgow and District Burns Association (Glasgow and District Burns Association, [1917]) (MLSC, Mitchell (AL) 6 MCM 557275);
7. McArthur, Archie McArthur, Some Connections Between the City of Glasgow and Robert Burns, compiled by Archie McArthur ([Glasgow and District Burns Association], [1989]) (MLSC, Robert Burns Collection, Mitchell (AL) 11 GLA MCA 907616);
8. ‘Glasgow and District Association of Burns Clubs’, Jean Armour Burns Trust <http://www.jeanarmourburnstrust.co.uk/GlasgowandDistrict.html> [accessed 27/01/18]
Repository
Mitchell Library Special Collections (MLSC)
National Library of Scotland (NLS)
Reference Number
(For Mitchell Library Special Collections materials, see Source of Information; for Annual Burns Chronicle, see below)
BNS19BUR (MLSC) (Annual Burns Chronicle)
General Reading Room (stored offsite), Y.233, available no. 1-34 25th Jan. 1892-Jan. 1925 (NLS) (Annual Burns Chronicle)
Additional Notes
‘BC‘ refers to the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, which was published yearly since 1892. Hard copies are available at the Mitchell Library Special Collections and the National Library of Scotland. Many of them have been digitised and are available through the Robert Burns World Federation website: http://www.rbwf.org.uk/digitised-chronicles/.
This list of Burns chronicles as sources of information gives the first year the club was included in the chronicle, and thereafter only for the years where the information is different from the previous year’s listing. In keeping with the scope of this study (1800-1914), only the chronicles published between 1892 and 1914 are included.