Thistle Burns Club

Overview

This is little currently known about this Burns club. What we do know is that it was a relatively small group by design: according to the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, in 1894, the club had 30 members, and in 1897, there was no number given, but it was reported that membership was limited to 40.

The club met at 24 Thistle Street, South Side (just south of the River Clyde), in 1907. According to the Glasgow Post Office directory for this year, the address was the business premises of one A. Kerr, spirit merchant. In 1914, the group met at 9 Miller Street (in Merchant City, in the city centre), the address given for R. W. Cairns, wine merchant, in the Glasgow Post Office directory for the same year.

Date of Existence

10 March 1882-? Federated 1885

Source of Information

1. Memorial Catalogue of the Burns Exhibition. Held in the Galleries of the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, 175 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, From 15th July till 31st October, 1896 (Glasgow: William Hodge & Company and T. & R. Annan & Sons, 1898), p. xv; (MLSC, Mitchell (AL) 14A MEM 472108);

2. ā€˜Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies, for 1892ā€™, in BC, ed. by John Muir, No. I (Kilmarnock, D. Brown & Co., 25 January 1892), p. 131;

3. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1894’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. III (Kilmarnock: D. Brown & Co., February 1894), p. 192;

4. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1897’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. VI (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1897), p. 149;

5. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1907’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XVI (Kilmarnock:Ā  Burns Federation, January 1907), p. 155;

6. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1914’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XXIII (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January, 1914), p. 200

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections (MLSC) (Memorial Catalogue, and Annual Burns Chronicle)

National Library of Scotland (NLS) (Annual Burns Catalogue)

Reference Number

(See Source of Information, and below for Annual Burns Chronicle)

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 theĀ Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, which was published yearly since 1892. Copies are available at the Mitchell Library Special Collections and the National Library of Scotland. Many of these have been digitised and are available through theĀ Robert Burns World FederationĀ website:Ā 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 isĀ differentĀ 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.