Overview
Pollokshaws is an area in the south side of Glasgow. (For more information on this area, see Irene Maver’s article, ‘No Mean City: 1914 to 1950s. Neighbourhoods: Pollokshaws‘ on The Glasgow Story website).
This Burns club had 70 members in 1896, which dropped to 60 in 1899. In the 1906 Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, it was reported that the group met at the Lesser Burgh Hall, Pollokshaws. (The Lesser Hall is part of the Pollokshaws Burgh Hall. For a brief history of the building, see ‘Pollokshaws Burgh Hall‘ on The Glasgow Story website).
Meetings were held monthly at 8pm on the last Friday, ‘or other convenient evening’. The club’s object, or purpose, was:
‘[…] to endeavour by subscriptions, donations, and such other means as may be available, to establish a fund which shall be used for the encouragement of the study of Scottish literature amongst the inhabitants of Pollokshaws and district, or for any special educational purpose — purely Scottish — which shall be approved of by the Club at any Annual or Special Meeting; to hold yearly a children’s competition in the singing and recitation of previously selected portions of the Poet’s works, and give medals and prizes for excellence therein to the successful competitors.’
(‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1906’, in Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XV (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1906), p. 161)
Date of Existence
25 January 1886-? Federated 1905
Source of Information
1. (Mentioned in Minutes of Glasgow and District Burns Club: Minute entry, 30 March 1908, Glasgow and District Burns Club, Minutes, 8 November 1907-5 September 1912, p. 18);
2. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1896’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, Vol. V (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1896), p. 141;
3. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1899’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, Vol. VIII (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1899), p. 168;
4. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1906’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XV (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1906), p. 161
Repository
Mitchell Library Special Collections (MLSC) (Minutes, and Annual Burns Chronicle)
National Library of Scotland (NLS) (Annual Burns Chronicle)
Reference Number
891709 (MLSC) (Minutes)
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
See also Glasgow and District Burns Club.
‘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.