Overview
The ‘Club Notes’ in the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory for 1901 includes this club’s Constitution, which gives its objects:
‘The objects of the Club shall be to foster an intimate acquaintance with the works of Burns, and to celebrate the memory of our National Bard by Annual Social Meetings, and by such other means as may be arranged.’
(‘Club Notes’, ‘CO-OPERATIVE BURNS CLUB’, in Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. X (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1901), pp. 106-7)
The same listing states that in order to join, gentlemen had to pay an entry fee of two shillings, and members paid an annual subscription of one shilling, which was cheaper than the average for other clubs during this period (2s 6d). The club held their meetings between September and April on the last Friday of each month. They met at 8pm at the Bridge Street Station Hotel (6 Bridge Street). Later, the club moved their meetings to 1 Cathcart Road, which, according to the 1904-1905 Glasgow Post Office directory, was the business address of one Mrs. James Anderson, wine and spirit merchant.
Date of Existence
1899?-? Federated 24 March 1899
Source of Information
1. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1900’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. IX (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1900), p. 148;
2. ‘Club Notes’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. X (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1901), pp. 106-7;
3. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1904’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XIII (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1904), p. 145;
4. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1905’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XIV (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1905), p. 155
Repository
Mitchell Library Special Collections (MLSC)
National Library of Scotland (NLS)
Reference Number
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.