Kingston Burns Club

Overview

Kingston is an area just to the south of the River Clyde and site of the Kingston Dock. (For more information on this area, see the entry for ‘Kingston Dock‘ on The Glasgow Story website). The Kingston Burns Club met at the Wheat Sheaf Tea Rooms, located at 263 Paisley Road at 8pm on the second Thursday of the month between October and March. In 1915, it had about 80 members.

According to the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, the club’s object was ‘[t]o commemorate the genius of Robert Burns and foster a love for his writings and to encourage the taste of Scottish literature and music generally; to celebrate his birthday on the 25th January, or as near thereto as possible.’

(‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1914’, in Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XXIII (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1914), p. 229)

Date of Existence

November 1912-?

Source of Information

1. (Mentioned in Minutes of Glasgow and District Burns Club: Minute entry, 27 March 1913, Glasgow and District Burns Club, Minutes, 12 September 1912-30 April 1919, p. 15 (MLSC, 891709));

2. ‘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. 229

Repository

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

National Library of Scotland (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.